Not Just Based On Land : A Study On The Ethnic Tibetan Community in Toronto

Transcription

1 Western University Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository November 2017 Not Just Based On Land : A Study On The Ethnic Tibetan Community in Toronto Diyin Deng The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Sherrie Larkin The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Anthropology A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree in Master of Arts Diyin Deng 2017 Follow this and additional works at: Part of the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Deng, Diyin, " Not Just Based On Land : A Study On The Ethnic Tibetan Community in Toronto" (2017). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact tadam@uwo.ca.

2 Abstract The Tibetan identity first emerged as resistance (Winland 2002; Scott 1990). The united pan-tibetan identity did not originally resonate with the diverse group of ethnic minorities living on the Tibetan plateau until post-chinese occupation. Then, all the groups saw the mutual benefit of adopting the united Tibetan identity against what they perceived as a greater threat to their culture and values. As such the initial Tibetan identity that is projected internationally was harnessed as a weapon (Bauman and Vecchi 2004:74) against homogenizing Chinese citizenship and was intimately intertwined with activism. My research focuses on the formation of diasporic Tibetan identities within the Toronto Tibetan community. Following the 1959 Chinese occupation of Tibet that displaced many Tibetans to India and Nepal, the first wave of 228 Tibetans migrated to Canada in Presently, Canada contains a Tibetan community in exile of around 6000 (Government of Canada 2014), and yet there have been few recent studies that focus on how Tibetan newcomers have experienced life in Canada. The first part of the thesis will be a literature review of the history of Tibetan migration to Canada, the multifaceted sense of Tibetan identity, as resistance, remembering the homeland (real and imagined) and creating diasporic spaces of belonging (Robins 2001). The second part will touch upon the recent paradigm shift from viewing Tibetan identity as resistance to a decolonizing project. Finally I will be sharing some of my findings from my fieldwork research with the Toronto Tibetan community in the summer of My research on contemporary Tibetan identit(ies) will contribute to the ongoing dialogue of non-status people and refugees finding spaces for justice and equality in an unequal world. Keywords Tibetan, migration, identity, transnationalism, refugee, diaspora, exile, activism, migrant networks

3 Acknowledgments I would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to my informants, who invested their trust and time in my research. This thesis would not be possible without the guidance of Dr. Sherrie Larkin, who I must thank for believing in the importance of my research. I would like to thank my advisor Dr. Randa Farah for her suggestions and comments. I would like to thanks Dr. Wendy Russell for inspiring me to pursue this line of research. The faculty of Anthropology offered a supportive environment and guidance and I would like to thank the following professors for listening and helping me refine my research: Dan Jorgensen, Andrew Walsh, Lisa Hodgetts, Tania Granadillo, Jean-Francois Millaire, and Adriana Premat. I would also like to thank the Migration and Ethnic Relations collaborative program for enriching my graduate experience. I would like to thank my graduate cohort for their valuable feedback and friendship: Hana Ahmed, Hannah Cho, Michael Fairall, Daphne Gagnon, Diana Gavric, Sarah Knowles, Hannah McGregor, Arwen Johns, Fernando Mercado, Michael Cook, Rebecca Parry, Scott Eckford and Brianne Vescio. Finally, I would like to thank the support of the Graduate Research Award and the Regna Darnell Award for Sociocultural fieldwork research. ii

4 Table of Contents Abstract... i Acknowledgments... ii Table of Contents... iii List of Figures... vi List of Appendices... vii Preface... viii Chapter Introduction Methods Theoretical Framework Tibetan Diaspora The Setting Historical Background Important Concepts Chapter Outlines Chapter Tibetan Migration to Canada Life in India and Nepal Motivations to Head West Better Education More Opportunities To Be Treated Equally Family Reunification Some Issues with Migrating to the West iii

5 2.3 Motivation for Citizenship From Refugee to Citizen Tibetan Community in Canada: Precarious Work and Health Tibetan Buddhism in Canada Chapter Summary Chapter The Tibetan Community in Toronto In Search of Little Tibet in Toronto Toronto Tibetan Cultural Centre Momo Crawl Gorshey nights Tashi Norbu s Art Gallery Opening and Workshops Stories of Migration through Food Lhakar Cultural Movement Chapter Summary Chapter Generational Perspectives on Living as a Tibetan in the West Tenzin s Ideals Stuck In Between Generation Tibet is My Home Too: Notions of Return Two Tibets Where is Tibet Tibet in the World The Tibetan Brand The Tibetan Mindset iv

6 4.9 Tenzin: a Name with Deep Roots Chapter Summary Chapter Conclusion Gaps in My Fieldwork and Directions for Further Study In Conclusion Bibliography Appendices Curriculum Vitae v

7 List of Figures Figure 1: Map of South Parkdale (City of Toronto Neighborhood planning profile 2011) The concentration of Tibetan activities is around Queen Street W. and Jamieson Avenue, where many Tibetans residents and newcomers live (Taken from City of Toronto Neighborhood planning profile 2011) Figure 2: Map of Little Tibet, Toronto. There was a map of the unofficial Little Tibet, Toronto on the 2016 Momo Crawl Passport. Nine Tibetan restaurants are depicted as various colourful checkpoints on the map (Photo taken by myself) Figure 3: 2016 Momo Crawl Passport Figure 4: Tashi Norbu s Art Gallery at Gallery Tashi Norbu is a Tibetan artist from Amsterdam. His artwork was displayed at Gallery 1313 on Queen Street W. from July 21 August 7, 2016 (Photo taken by myself) Figure 5: Buddha painting. My Buddha Painting from Tashi Norbu s Art Workshop on August 1, 2016 at the Tibetan Cultural Centre (Photo taken by myself) vi

8 List of Appendices Appendix 1: Ethics Approval Forms vii

9 Preface In 1988, Scholar Virginia Appell from the University of Western Ontario conducted research on the rising trend of Tibetan monasteries with a western membership. Now nearly three decades later, I have conducted research with the Tibetan community in Toronto, not with the Tibetan monasteries, but rather with the ethnic Tibetan community. It is my contention that Tibetan identity in Canada is reshaped by the Canadian experience and that the notion of return is different among Tibetans. McCarthy (2001: 1) investigated the conception of a Chinese political identity among the Dai, Bai and Muslim Hui of Yunnan, China. Wellens (2010) report a resurgence of Tibetan cultural practices in the rural communities of China as a reactionary desire to preserve a community identity among the modernizing Chinese society (2010:212). Tibet is a contested site that is continuously going through deterritorialization (Rembold 2011:366). The 1951 Chinese occupation of Tibet started the Tibetan global diaspora. Despite Tibetan narratives of colonialism and unjustified occupation, Chinese discourses have never acknowledged its role as a colonizer. Mao Zedong, the founder of the China s communist party, famously quoted, let the past serve the present (Zhisui, Chatto & Windus 1997: 209). His quote represents the Chinese approach to the conflicting histories within its national borders; erasure is justified so long as it serves China s national interest and maintains the Chinese Han superiority. The memory is not necessarily authentic, but useful (Said 2000:179). This research aims to investigate the formulation of contemporary, diasporic Tibetan identities in Toronto, Canada. viii

10 1 Chapter 1 1 Introduction In 1951, the People s Liberation Army, under the orders of Mao Zedong, invaded Tibet. They destroyed many Tibetan monasteries and began to populate the Tibetan plateau with Chinese settlers, a trend that continues to this day. By 1959, relations between Tibet and China had disintegrated considerably, causing the Dalai Lama to flee to India in fear for his life and thousands of Tibetans followed. They made the treacherous journey through the Himalayan Mountains in order to reach Nepal. There are only estimates of the number of Tibetans killed during the Chinese invasion and subsequent occupation; However, Tibetan scholar Sperling (2012) wrote about the discovery of mass unnamed burial sites and the widespread gender imbalance of Tibetans (low numbers of certain generations of Tibetan males). He believes these findings reveal a hidden genocide conducted by the Chinese administration on the Tibetan people during the 1960s-1970s. According to a 2009 Central Tibetan Administration planning commission, there are over 127,935 Tibetans living outside of Tibet, as compared to 111,020 in a 1998 survey. 74% live in India, and 15% or 18,920 live elsewhere (Hindustantimes 2010). As of 2014, around 6,000 Tibetans have settled in Canada, with approximately two thirds living in the Greater Toronto area (Government of Canada 2014). The Tibetan community has a relatively short history in Canada. Yet they have a significant place in the history of Canadian immigration as one of the first groups of non-european refugees in Canada. As Tibetans negotiate their multiple identities as Tibetan/Canadian, they reshape the Canadian experience and contribute to the wider understanding of refugee and nationstate. Gamble & Ringapontsang go further to call for adopting more generally nuanced attitude to dual and multiple citizenships, which in turn could create a more flexible way of looking at Tibetan identity (2013: 39). It is important to address the ambivalence Tibetans have toward the Chatreg, the Central Tibetan Administration and living precariously in permanent statelessness. Hess (2009) revealed in her research with the ethnic Tibetan communities in the U.S., that Tibetans in the west act as ambassadors to

11 2 Tibet. Harnessing their political capital as US citizens and voters, they urge their government to become more involved with the Tibet cause. A similar case is occurring with the ethnic Tibetan community in Toronto, Canada. It is my contention that the ethnic Tibetan community in Toronto has carefully created and passed on a political Tibetan identity based on particularism and that this identity construct is fluid and being reshaped by the Canadian experience. According to Jeffery Week, (quoted in Bauman 2001:100): The strongest sense of community is in fact likely to come from those groups who find the premises of their collective existence threatened and who construct out of this a community of identity which provides a strong sense of resistance and empowerment. Seeming unable to control the social relations in which they find themselves, people shrink the world to the size of their communities and act politically on that basis. The result, too often, is an obsessive particularism as a way of embracing or coping with contingency. Tibetans living outside of Tibet generally tend to refer to themselves as Tibetans living in exile, or as Tibetan refugees in X country. In-depth investigation reveals that such terms could be legally ambiguous and at times contentious. Tibetans encounter some difficulties being legally recognized as refugees because they often lack proper identification, lost during the journey through the Himalayan Mountains. Perhaps there is also some reluctance to obtain and use Chinese documents. Most importantly, Tibet is not internationally recognized as a sovereign state. With exceptions such as the 2011 Tibet Project in which the Harper government promised to grant asylum up to 1000 Tibetan refugees from Arunachal Pradesh, India, many Tibetans actually come to Canada as immigrants, through family reunification and as international students. While this should not invalidate their claims, it does reveal a gap in the semantics of the legal concept of refugee and being in exile. This research, through an analysis of the ethnic Tibetan community in Toronto, is an attempt to understand why Tibetans living outside of Tibet continue to actively distinguish themselves not as immigrants or newcomers, but as refugees living in exile.

12 3 1.1 Methods The narrative of nationalism therefore tells us that the imagining of a people within a specific boundary, (Lailufar 2014:120); Canadians may never meet every other Canadian, but as Anderson (1991) states in Imagined Communities, they have a general idea that other Canadians are for the most part, just like them. This is a problem for people who are on the periphery of these specific boundaries and find themselves outcasts. They are people who do not exist and as such do not constitute a naturally self-delimitating domain of anthropological knowledge (Malkki 1995: 496; Brettell 2008:113). In order to work with contemporary communities, ethnographic research is adapting to the globalized world. My research will build on past Tibetan research and investigate the emergence of a distinct Tibetan identity in Canada to address important concepts of belonging and identity. It is an ethnographic investigation with the Tibetan community in Toronto, Canada, that look into how contemporary constructions of Tibetan identity create diasporic spaces of belonging (Robins 2001) and foster a sense of Tibetan nationalism and patriotism. Tibetan communities living in South Asian Countries, Tibet and China are referred to for important contextual and background information, but they are not the focus of the current research, which is on the formulation of Tibetan diasporic identities and communities in Canada. Over the summer of 2016, I lived at the University College summer residence. I spent much of my time at the Tibetan Canadian Cultural Centre and participated in many Tibetan public social events that might constitute a Tibetan space, events such as the 2016 Momo Crawl and Wednesday Gorshey nights. In the end, I conducted 11 semi-formal interviews with 1 st generation Tibetans between the ages of 80 and 18 years. In the following section I will briefly introduce these participants. The Participants Chak is a senior in her 80s, she was one of the early Tibetan arrivals to Canada in the 1970s. At the time, she came as a Traditional Tibetan dancer as part of cultural preservation efforts. Shing is an older Tibetan in his late 70s, and came to Canada just a few years ago. Tenzin is a 45 years old ex-monk from India. He has lived in Toronto, Canada for over seven years. Nobden is an 18 years old student who will be attending

13 4 first year in university in the fall. She has lived in Toronto for 15 years. Sue is an 18 years old student. She has lived in Toronto for 10 years since moving to Canada in Fiona is a 19 years old university student. She emigrated with her family from India to Canada when she was eight. She has lived in the Parkdale area for 10 years though her family is planning to move to Scarborough next year. Lhamo is 20 years old and going into her third year in Biochemistry and Neuroscience at the University of Toronto. She has lived in Toronto for nine years, though not always in Parkdale. Dolma is in her midthirties and unlike the other established Tibetan newcomers who migrated from India, she came to Toronto as a British immigrant. Tashi is a 50 years old long time Toronto resident, having lived there since he was a child. Rachel is 32 years old and works fulltime. She was studying in the United States at the time when her family moved to Canada. She later joined them and settled in Parkdale. I also had the opportunity to interview Tibetan artist, Tashi Norbu. He is based in Amsterdam but was in Toronto at the time of my fieldwork to host his art gallery and workshops. My points of investigations are: a) How Tibetans in Toronto carefully maintain a political Tibetan identity based on particularism (clothing, food, language, spirituality, culture and activism). b) Tibetans keen awareness of the Western perspective on Tibet and how individual Tibetans are actively taking advantage of 'obligatory interrogation' (Pennesi) that is routinely performed on immigrants and turned into opportunities to further the Tibet cause. c) The impacts of years of exile and displacement on perspectives and notions of return, land, and the loose transnational network on ethnic Tibetan communities around the world. d) How the history of forced migration is being embedded and experienced through ethnic Tibetan food.

14 Theoretical Framework Bauman (Bauman and Vecchi 2004:14) argues that identity is a necessary social construction, explaining the constant negotiation of identity as a way of getting by and I believe this is a productive way of looking at the ethnic Tibetan community in Canada. My proposed research theoretical framework is informed by Zygmunt Bauman (2004) s concept of liquid identity, as well as Benedict Anderson (2006) s idea of imagined communities and Edward Said (2000) s theory of imagined geographies. While Bauman s idea of liquid identity was originally created to complement his concept of liquid modernity, which involves a new understanding of the contemporary world of mass consumerism and capitalism, here, identity is liquid because it is in a constant state of impermanence. For example, global consumers can put on and take off fashion items that define their individuality and identity with relative ease. Tibetans are in turns challenging their ascribed national identity as Chinese and actively choosing to remain as Tibetans, even at the cost of being stateless. Because there appears to be the availability of choice as the Chinese administration has long maintained that Tibetans are not persecuted within its borders, Tibetans can encounter difficulties being legally defined as refugees. Though many Tibetans living outside of Tibet would argue that for them, a choice between being able to live as Tibetans and freely practice their traditions or not, is not a choice at all. This leads to another question regarding how Tibetans are able to maintain a sense of patriotism and Tibetan national identity despite the lack of an officially recognized nation-state. Benedict Anderson s concept of imagined communities addresses this question by pointing out that the very concept of a nation is an imagined political community (Anderson 1991). Tibetans around the world may never meet each other but for a majority of Tibetans living abroad, they hold a mental image of their affinity as Tibetans. Ultimately it is this fraternity that makes it possible, over the past two centuries, for so many millions of people, not so much to kill, as willingly to die for such limited imaginings (1991:6-7). Edward Said s concept of imagined geographies, the interplay between memory, place, and invention (Said 2000:191) is not only employed by the Chinese government to

15 6 translate Tibet into Xizang, a Chinese province, but it is also practiced by Tibetans outside of Tibet, who reproduce an imagined pristine Tibet based on collective memory of the homeland prior to Chinese occupation. As the physical landscape is territorialized into Chinese land through development projects. China is actively engaging in a spatial project to reshape the Tibetan landscape by restricting the movements of racialized Tibetan bodies in Tibet and China in order to maintain legitimacy of the Chinese State presence in Tibet. Ethnic Tibetans work to preserve a memory of Tibet in the imagined geography of the Tibetan nation, in order to maintain a notion of return. In a similar manner, westerners and Chinese have also created an imagined Tibet as a pristine spiritual haven that can alleviate the stress of city life. And as more Tibetans are born outside of Tibet, transnational notions of home and the homeland will be relevant to examine. According to Hess, for many Tibetans living in diaspora, Tibetan identity transcends the borders of the homeland to India, to the place where they are currently living, to the places they grew up. This framework was created with the hope of gaining a better understanding of some of the major places and spaces that have a privileged position in the imagined geography of the Tibetan nation (Yeh 2013:19) and remain symbolically important to the Tibetan cultural identity. 1.2 Tibetan Diaspora Thousands of Tibetans followed the Dalai Lama to Nepal when he fled from Tibet in Rachel: Nepal is not signatory on the UN Convention on refugees so they allow for safe passage from Tibet to India, to the refugee welcome center in Dharmasala, but Nepal itself does not give status to Tibetans, nor recognize them nor give them any rights. It's very precarious for Tibetans there and increasingly they are sending Tibetans to China. On the borders there are a lot of patrols, someone was shot. I'm sure many people have been shot and killed. It's getting harder (Recorded Interview, August 2016).

16 7 While Nepal allows for safe passage from Tibet to India, it no longer grants a Refugee Identity Certificate to Tibetans who arrived post-1989 (ICFT 2013). The Tibetan Refugee Reception Centre in Kathmandu, Nepal, along with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, helps Tibetan newcomers from Tibet safely travel to India. From India, Tibetans are able to secure refugee identification certificates and migrate to any country that would grant them asylum, establishing Tibetan communities around the word. Fiona has relatives in the United States, Switzerland, India and Canada. Sue s family members are mainly still in Nepal and India though she has some distant relatives in America. Lhamo is not sure how many relatives she has, especially on her mother s side. She attributes this in part to Tibetans being displaced so many times that they have lost ties with many of their families. The Tibetan naming system also does not help her in tracking any family members down. Lhamo: I think I have a lot of relatives here, but I m not in touch with them Diyin: And do you know they are your cousins through your same last name? Lhamo: No, because we don't have the same last name right? So it's hard. It s very different [naming system] too. We do have last names that, like family names and you can tell, but it's quite hard. Because most of us on our passport we never have our actual family name. Because the first name is usually Tenzin or something like that. Common names, and then last names is Diyin: Like the first names? Lhamo: Yeah, or like your middle names, or yeah. And then your family name does not [ineligible]. And it s something people have started doing The best way to explain it, it's because it would have been ok except that we have been displaced so many times from different parts of the world. So then we have to start from scratch right? So my

17 8 grandparents, they were asked to fill in forms, which they couldn't because they couldn't even speak, I mean read and write in Tibetan. Let alone in English, or in Indian language. So when they were asked to name their kid and write the date of birth. They didn't know what to write so then they just write whatever they called their kid. So my mum would have her first name on her passport. My dad s name X, right now his passport says X, X (laughs). Like there s no option but the one name. Like he has an actual name, but it just never got written down because of the way, the way in India it was just like, ok what is your kid s name? And they're like, I don't know I call him something but his actual name is It didn't matter in that sense because in Tibet, you didn't have these formalities. And then that was the case. And then apply for citizenship, or I mean, applying for visa to come here that's another process. And then often times, your name have to be changed or they like it's a necessity to have a second name or a last name. So my dad needed a last name, he didn t know what to do so then he just repeated his first name (Recorded Interview, August 2016). Symbols such as the Tibetan national flag and Tibetan National anthem are ritualized by Tibetan communities around the world in demonstrations, and special events in order to emphasize Tibetan cultural identity as well as Tibetan sovereignty. Fiona: [explains the symbolism behind the Tibetan flag] Blue is the sky or something, and then the red is like the monks, and the sun is like all the teachings to go into all forms of life. And what's the tiger...it's called Singe. I feel bad I can't remember...it's very symbolic. [Yellow border] there's only three, it doesn't end, so it's supposed to say it's going to keep growing (Recorded Interview, August 2016). As Fiona remarks, They remind you and give you a feeling of nationalism. We don't have like a solid land, a country that's ours, but we have our language, we have our flag, our songs, our national anthem.

18 9 Sue: It speaks for itself that I m in Canada, so I am Canadian. But I like to identify myself to others as Tibetan because I don t want to lose myself (Recorded Interview, July 2016). After living in Canada for more than seven years, Tenzin still feels more Tibetan than Canadian, though he is fine with being referred to as Tibetan-Canadian. Sonam Chokey, national director for SFT Canada, explains how even as a Canadian citizen, she still feels that statelessness is part of her identity as a Tibetan. This is the same for Chak and Shing, both of whom continuously reminded me throughout the interview that the migration to the West is ultimately motivated by a lack of choice. Chak: Tibet is such an amazing place. Why would we want to leave if not for the occupation (Recorded Interview, July 2016)? Dolma was adopted by her aunt who lived in England at a young age of around seven or eight. Before that she lived in one of the resettlement camps in India. For her, she feels at home in England, India and Canada. There was a time when she was younger when she felt she did not quite belong anywhere. Migrating at a young age and going through the western education system had alienated her from her Tibetan culture and language. Right now, she says, she feels most at home in Toronto, where she hopes to stay. Her Tibetan language has improved a lot since she settled down in Toronto, though she feels that her English is starting to take a back seat. Dolma: I get that with my adopted mom, so she remembers back. Reminiscing about. She had a more harrowing experience escaping Tibet, some of her siblings died on the road. Clearly it was a lot harder, they were nomadic people as well. And then there was a lot of hardship in India. I would like to take my dad back. Because he talks about Tibet. That would be nice...and also to do a pilgrim (Recorded Interview, August 2016). The first wave of Tibetan refugee migration started in 1959 to India and the surrounding Himalayan countries. Dissatisfaction with the living standards and lack of access to

19 10 education and work opportunities motivated the second wave of young Tibetans to migrate from India to the Americas and Europe between the 1960s-1970s. The third wave is a much smaller group of Tibetan dissidents that are migrating likely because of the Chinese-Tibetan violent clashes during the 2008 Chinese Olympics, in addition to dissatisfied Tibetans looking abroad for more opportunities. This third wave could arguably be an extension of the second wave, however a significant amount of time has passed and there are now visible differences, particularly economic-wise, between the new arrivals and those from the 1970s, who are by now well-established in their communities in Canada. Continuous displacement and migration have separated many Tibetans from their friends and families in Tibet. Meeting someone from the same village, as Tashi said, is very special. Tashi: Kham region, in a town called Tsedang. Tibetans, they said a word called Phayul Chipa. Phayul means where are you actually from? For a lack of a better word, it's like what tribe are you from. Kham is huge, there is a lot places. A lot of Khampas, but each has their own cities and make it seems like these are the tribes. So back then and anywhere. If you meet somebody that is from your own Phayul, or your own village. It's very meaningful. Right now, because you know so many Tibetans, you don't know who is who. You may not know that he is from your...i've met a few people that that I didn't know are from Tsedang. And then you've made a connection, an automatic connection. With that bond comes a lot of support (Recorded Interview, August 2016). 1.3 The Setting I chose to do my fieldwork research in Toronto, mainly in the Parkdale neighborhood. Today there are around 6000 Tibetans living in Canada with two thirds of the whole Tibetan community living in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) (Government of Canada 2014). The GTA offers an ideal place for the Tibetan community because it has an established network of support, many notable Tibetan associations such as the Ontario Tibetan Women s Association and Student for Free Tibet Canada. Most importantly,

20 11 there is a Tibetan Canadian Cultural Center (TCCC). The majority of Tibetans start out in the Parkdale neighborhood due to factors such as cheaper housing, availability of support and culturally sensitive services, translation services and legal aids, as well as close proximity to established Tibetans who live there. This makes the Parkdale neighborhood one of the ideal locations for field research in a Tibetan community. Parkdale Neighborhood Even prior to any preliminary research, various people advised me to check out the Parkdale area. Demographically, the Parkdale area has a high concentration of Tibetans compared to any other area in Toronto. In the 2011 South Parkdale neighborhood area profile, people who speak Tibetan as their mother tongue made up 8.8% or 1,775 people. People who speak Tibetan as their home language made up 7.9 or 1,595 people living in the Parkdale area. The Parkdale area that is most relevant to this research is South Parkdale, an area annexed from the Village of Parkdale in 1889 (Slater 2003: 21). Figure 1: Map of South Parkdale. The concentration of Tibetan activities is around Queen Street W. and Jamieson Avenue, where many Tibetans residents and newcomers live (Taken from City of Toronto Neighborhood planning profile 2011). A once thriving suburb, South Parkdale was considered one of Toronto s most desirable locations. However, after a series of constructions, such as the Gardiner expressway, cut off the area from the lake, a principle amenity offered to the residents, and the loss of real

21 12 estate values, the majority of the elites and middle-class home owners decided to move out. High rise buildings and small apartments soon took over the landscape of South Parkdale, offering some of the cheapest permanent accommodations one can find in the highly competitive Toronto housing market. With the timely 1967 election of Pierre Trudeau s liberal government, which brought in the 1971 Canadian Multiculturalism Policy intended to preserve the cultural freedom of all individuals and provide recognition of the cultural contributions of diverse ethnic groups to Canadian society (Library and Archives Canada), South Parkdale began to have a steady influx of immigrants and low-income residents. The area quickly became one of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods but also as Slater (2003: 23) called it, the most economically traumatized community. The fact that South Parkdale houses the highest number of deinstitutionalized patients in Toronto also does not help its reputation. The deinstitutionalization of psychiatric services in the 1960s and 1970s in Canada moved mental health patients out of hospitals and into the community. It was a gradual policy motivated at the time by legal and financial reasons and the results were felt not just in the community but also on the street (Sealy and Whitehead 2004: 250). Parkdale became known as one of the rougher areas of Toronto. However, due to important factors such as existing migrant support networks, ideal inner-city location, cheap permanent rentals and availability of employment opportunities for newcomers such as in service, manufacturing, the food terminal and personal care, Parkdale remains a gateway community for many Tibetans and newcomers who want to live in a Canadian metropolis. A consistent pattern revealed by my participants is that they all started out in South Parkdale. And then after they achieved some level of economic and financial stability, many of them moved out of Parkdale to other parts of the Greater Toronto Area such as Etobicoke, Mississauga and Scarborough. Tibetans living in Toronto also often send word back to their friends and families in India, and other South Asian countries about Parkdale. Through word of mouth, Parkdale became the go-to place for Tibetan newcomers who want to settle down in Toronto.

22 Historical Background The root cause of the uprisings which prompted the Dalai Lama to flee Tibet in 1959 is the contentious outcome of the Battle of Chamdo. At the time, the Chinese People s Liberation Army of around 40,000 soldiers crossed over the de facto border into the Cham region of Tibet. Their presence was instrumental in the creation of the 17-points agreement between Tibet and China s delegates. The 17-points agreement legitimized the annexation of Tibet into China, as well as Chinese military presence in the region. While the international community has recognized the legitimacy of the agreement, Professor Eckart Klein of the University of Potsdam, states that the agreement is illegal and void in nature because it was made under duress (1995). This is a term used in court in which the defendant claims they were forced to do something against their will (Collins Dictionary of Law 2006). The Chinese authorities immediately used the news of the 14th Dalai Lama s escape to India to declare the Tibetan government illegal in order to justify Chinese occupation in Tibet, prompting thousands of Tibetans to flee to Nepal, and then to India. Later that same year, the 14 th Dalai Lama established the Central Tibetan Administration in Dharmasala, India (Woodcock 1970: 410). Both governments have since then produced their official narrations on Tibet: One of historical continuity: For more than 700 years the central government of China has continuously exercised sovereignty over Tibet and Tibet has never been an independent state. People s Republic of China official White Paper, 1992 One of unjustified occupation: At the time of its invasion by troops of the People s Liberation Army of China in 1949, Tibet was an independent state in fact and law. The military invasion constituted an aggression on a sovereign state and a violation of international law. Tibetan Government in Exile, 1993 (Sperling 2004:1).

23 14 There are western scholars supporting both versions; scholars such as Goldstein, Grunfeld and Epstein paint a more sympathetic picture of China going through a painful process of unifying the nation (Powers 2004:137). Scholars such as Richardson, Smith, and Thurman on the other hand, portray the events that occurred in 1959 and the later Chinese policies in the Tibetan region as colonizing, repressive and a foreign invasion (ibid). Despite the debate over which narration is the correct one, there is no denying China s economic interest in Tibet s land and natural resources. Bill Dunn (2008:12) wrote a fascinating article on accumulation by dispossession using the case of China. What he meant here is that China s rapid economic growth was made possible through the continued exploitation of cheap labour, but his argument can be further extended to China s exploitation of the Tibetan land and resources. China continues to deny international accusations and constructs its own history in order to affirm the claim that Tibet had always been a state of China. Scholar Yeh divides the Chinese narrative into two parts: one of historical continuity. But in the recent decade, Yeh noted that the narrative has shifted to one of gratitude (Yeh 2013: 1). A Chinese presumption of Tibetan gratitude brought about by extensive development and modernization projects China has invested in Tibet. Chinese historiographers trace China and Tibet s relations using a series of fauxconstructions, which are reimagings of the past, in order to argue that Tibet has always been a Chinese state. The most well-known faux-constructions are the legend of Chinese Princess Wencheng (Woeser 2014) and the Chinese s own 11 th Panchen Lama (Mirsky 2009:395). The story of Princess Wencheng began in 641 when a 16 year ago girl from a branch of a Chinese royal clan was used as an involuntary piece in the political marriage to the Tibetan Emperor as a sign of peace and harmony between China and Tibet (Powers 2004:145; Woeser 2014). According to the Chinese, the Potala Palace, which the 14th Dalai Lama has called the center of Tibetan spirituality, was built in celebration of when Tibetan King Songtsen Gampo took Princess Wencheng as his wife. Not surprisingly, Thangka (traditional Tibetan embroidery painting), Tibetan Buddhism, even the popular

24 15 Tibetan greeting Tashi Delek were all invented by Princess Wencheng. The sacred mountain Bumpari, the destination of many pilgrims, was named by her and the Highland Barley crop was brought over from China by Princess Wencheng and the list of her accomplishments goes on (Woeser 2014). Using the figure of Princess Wencheng, the Chinese put their mark on all things Tibetan and claim them as Chinese. China narrates the Chinese occupation in Tibet as a liberation mission in which more than 1 million Tibetan serfs were freed. Chinese propaganda depicts Tibetans as eternally cheerful, singing and dancing with gratitude that peaks every year since 1959 on March 28, Serfs Emancipation Day (Sydenstricker 2014). The story is acted out in the 1963 Chinese film Serf. The film focusses on the exploitation of one particular Tibetan serf and his liberation by the People's Liberation Army. The Tibetan monastic system is built on the reincarnation of the spiritual leaders. The role of the Panchen Lama is to choose the next Dalai Lama and vice versa. The Chinese administration interfered with the selection process of the 11 th Panchen Lama in its efforts to control the Dalai Lama and his following reincarnations. When the tenth Panchen Lama died, the Dalai Lama agreed with the monks of the Panchen s monastery in Tibet that the child they had identified as the new incarnation was the real thing, so that little boy was named as the 11 th Panchen Lama. That little boy, and his entire family, and the abbot of that monastery were all made to disappear and have never been seen again (Mirsky 2009:359). The Chinese administration replaced that missing boy with their own Chinese Panchen Lama so that he could choose a Dalai Lama that the Chinese administration could control. However, not only have Tibetans and the world not recognized the Chinese Panchen Lama, the Dalai Lama has also decided to stop his lineage of reincarnation as a way to keep Tibet out of the Chinese s grasp even after he is gone (Economist 2015). For many Tibetan scholars, such as Woeser (2014) and Powers (2004), stories such as Princess Wencheng, the Serfdom Emancipation Day and the Chinese Panchen Lama, expose the Chinese national arrogance; it took the Chinese superior culture to elevate

25 16 the Tibetan savages onto civilization. By reconfiguring histories to fit the colonial frames, China has been able to appeal to the settler s innocence when it comes to the daily occupation of Tibet (dlo ). The Chinese government uses these faux constructions strategically to crystalize the memories of certain key Tibetan sites as evidence of China s historical continuity in Tibet (Nora 1989:7). How can the Chinese invade their own country? After all, Tibetans are part of the fifty-six Chinese ethnic groups. Han Chinese may have the majority but in the end, everyone is Chinese and equal through this homogenizing identity. This notion of a homogenizing identity works in favor of the Chinese because it ignores the issue that one group will always have to submit and relinquish its own ideals, values and culture to fit into this encompassing Chinese citizenship that benefits the dominant Han Chinese, thus exposing the inherent inequality (1989:7). Identity is at the root of the Tibet-China case. It is a clash of ideologies and a war of identities (Bauman & Vecchi 2004:74). The united pan-tibetan identity did not originally resonate with the diverse groups of ethnic minorities living on the Tibetan plateau, many of whom had their own distinct ethnic identities and traditions until post-chinese occupation. Afterwards, Tibetans outside of Tibet were at the forefront advocating the adaptation of a united Tibetan identity against what they perceive as the greater threat to their Tibetan culture and values. The few Han Chinese who express great sympathy for the plight of the Tibetans, feel an encompassing empathy and they share the pain because they are all Chinese. Xu Zhiyong, a Han Chinese lawyer wrote an article in the New York Times, in which he stated: I am sorry we Han Chinese have been silent as Nangdrol and his fellow Tibetans are dying for freedom. We are victims ourselves, living in estrangement, infighting, hatred and destruction. We share this land. It s our shared home, our shared responsibility, our shared dream and it will be our shared deliverance (dlo ). Tibetan blogger, dlo08, points out that the issue here is not a matter of sympathy but rather one of misunderstanding; the Chinese have completely misunderstood the Tibetan

26 17 movement. Is the root cause of the irreconcilable ties between China and Tibet because the Chinese administration and the Central Tibetan Administration have very different goals in mind? The problem is simpler than that, as Scholar Yeh revealed, and it deals with the second Chinese narrative of presumed Tibetan gratitude. The Chinese government has spent a lot of money on the development and urbanization of Tibet since Through the gift of development, the Chinese government effectively asserts its state space and reshapes Tibetans as subjects in need of development (Yeh 2013). As such, the general sentiment of Han Chinese regarding the 2008 protests in Lhasa in which Tibetans burned down around 1000 shops that were operated by Han Chinese, is one of resentment and outrage at the ingratitude of Tibetans. The heavy military crackdown in Lhasa post-2008 is in part a response as well to the Han Chinese s outrage at the ungrateful Tibetans who caused trouble for no apparent reasons. What the protests reveal is an awareness on the part of the Tibetans who partook in the protests; that the gifts of developments came with many strings attached and subjugated Tibet into a relationship of obligation (Yeh 2013: 15). The Dalai Lama is proposing the middle way approach to the Chinese government, Tibet would remain under China as an autonomous region. Technically, Tibet is already an autonomous region in China, but many Tibetans would argue there is no genuine autonomy. Because of the politics of fear and surveillance, Tibetans living in Tibet have even taken to policing their own bodies by self-restricting their mobility and remaining in their homes on certain days such as the Dalai Lama s birthday in order to stay out of trouble. The experience of Tibetans living in Tibet is one of restricted mobility and surveillance, something Han Chinese and tourists never experience. The racialized Tibetan body is not only restricted, they are also presumed guilty. Yeh recounts an encounter she had with a Tibetan friend who became visibly nervous after realizing they were passing a village where some youths had been arrested the day before because they were suspected of celebrating the Dalai Lama s birthday. The entire space had become, for him, a zone of fear. By merely passing through a space associated with a restricted presence on a certain day of the year, he feared that he was already guilty, or had the potential for guilt,

27 18 of a potential crime for which he might forfeit employment (Yeh 2013: 37). Genuine autonomy would involve letting Tibet have full control over the use of its central administration, resources and tourism, and most importantly, the return of Tibet s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama to the Potala Palace in the capital city, Lhasa. So far, the Chinese administration has refused to recognize the Central Tibetan Administration and refers to the 17 point agreement as the established consensus between Tibet and China. If there were some way for the Chinese government and the Tibetan government-in-exile to reach a compromise that satisfied both sides, the situation in Tibet would improve dramatically and there would not be any refugees from this region. The Tibetans have been waiting for this solution to materialize for the past 65 years; it is most certainly their preferred resolution to their predicament, but it has not yet happened (Rumble & Ringapontsang 2013: 39). 1.5 Important Concepts The Chatrel: The CTA establish its state legitimacy and maintains ties with Tibetans outside of Tibet through documents such as the Chatrel or Green Book. The Chatrel is the Tibetan refugee identification booklet for Tibetans living in exile. Every Tibetan must maintain the validity of their individual Chatrel by paying the annual voluntary tax that is differentiated based on regional rates. The money helps keep the CTA running and provides support for Tibetans living in exile in the form of scholarships, jobs and pensions for the elderly. As Falcone & Wangchuk (2008:173) explain, Taxing towards Tibet! The regional rate differentiation has created malcontent particularly with new arrivals in the Americas and Europe, where the regional rates are exponentially higher than those in India (2008:175). Living in Exile: Many Tibetans living outside of Tibet refer to themselves as being in exile. Tibet is not officially recognized as a state but it has a government in exile, Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) in Dharmasala, India. According to the UN definition, a

28 19 refugee is someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war, or violence (UNHCR). But because Tibet is not an official nation-state, and with China denying any persecutions of its ethnic minorities, Tibetans, much like the Roma people in Europe, are treading on ambiguous grounds in being legally recognized as refugees. The conscious adoption and identification of being in exile is political in nature, signifying a notion of return to the homeland and calls for Tibet s Independence. A form of state governmentality does exist in the loose transnational network despite the lack of a Tibetan nation-state. Tibetan communities paid a voluntary annual tax to the CTA which is used to create programs and scholarships to benefit the Tibetan communities. Tibetan communities around the world also tend to have more political and religious freedom to practice and preserve Tibetan history and culture, making them in some Tibetans opinion, the last bastions of pure Tibetan culture. While this research did not go into the range of political options and aspirations among Tibetans living in Toronto, whether they want autonomy or Tibet independence, the majority of Tibetans appear to be in support of the Dalai Lama s middle way approach, in which he attempted to appease both sides in his demand for greater autonomy for Tibet within China. Central Tibetan Administration (CTA): Consisting of 44 members elected directly by the people. Unlike other countries, the representation of Tibetan parliament is very unique as it is equally represented by members from different provinces and religious sects. Each province represents 10 members in Parliament (U-Tsang, Dotoe and Domey). Along with this, five religious sects, (Sakya, Gelug, Bon, Nyingma and Kagyu) represent two members each in the parliament (Tsering 2011:6). The CTA placed strong emphasis on education and according to the recent survey by the Planning commission (Dharmasala), the literacy rates of Tibetan refugees have greatly increased from 69 percent in 1998 to 79 percent in This improvement clearly indicates the educational progress of refugees in India. However, it also signifies a growing number of dissatisfied, highly-educated Tibetan youths living in the resettlements, incoming waves of young, educated Tibetans from India to the Americas and Europe. Tibetan Canadian Cultural Centre (TCCC): In 2004 the Dalai Lama visited the Toronto Tibetan Canadian community and blessed them to establish a cultural center.

29 20 The cultural center resides in Etobicoke and offers a variety of activities including language classes and cultural events, and is a distinct and familiar marker of Tibetan identity and culture in Etobicoke. The center itself is a fascinating space where both Tibetans and non-tibetan Canadians can potentially engage in dialogue. The community center represents a future which western Tibetan Buddhism practitioners in particular believe in; that Tibetan Buddhism is integrated as a part of the Canadian milieu instead of as a foreign other religion. The two giant prayer bells in front of the Tibetan Canadian cultural center in Etobicoke are not only tourist attractions, they are the physical manifestation of spiritual connection between the Tibetans living in Toronto and the Dalai Lama. The community center is central to the Tibetan community in Toronto, as one of my participants puts it, it is like the mother of all the other organizations! Tibetan Canadian Organizations: Friends of Tibet was established by five representatives of the House of Commons in It is a Parliament branch in Ottawa that offer summer and year-round internships for Tibetan university students as a way to enter politics and contribute to the Tibetan movement. The branch was created as a symbol of Canada s good will towards Tibet. According to the Canada Tibet Committee, Canada has demonstrated good will in steadily supporting Tibet since 1969, albeit tentatively, with Canada officially separating its human rights campaigns from its economic trade relationship with China in 1996 (CTC 2017). The Tibetan Women Association (TWA) emerged when the Chinese administration imprisoned and disappeared many Tibetan men during The Tibetan women who were left behind to fend for their families and communities rose up. On March 12, 1959, women from all provinces of Tibet joined together in Lhasa, the Capital of Tibet, to protest against the brutal crackdown on the Tibetans. They were persecuted and many were forced to flee to India and Nepal afterwards. Almost three decades later in 1984, TWA was established in India with more than 54 chapters worldwide. The Ontario TWA is located in Toronto. TWA provides scholarship to young, destitute Tibetan women to pursue higher studies (Tsering 2011:12). TWA has also conducted studies and published reports on the socio political status of Tibetan women (ibid).

30 21 The Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) is an organization consisting of Tibetan youth and has chapters around the world. The People s Republic of China called it a terrorist organization with the sole objective of splitting the motherland (Tsering 2011:10) because of the organization s stance for Tibet s complete independence. Students for Free Tibet (SFT) university clubs can be considered a branch of the TYC since they often share a similar demographic of young Tibetans and non-tibetans who support the TYC. Last year, SFT Toronto was involved in an intense campaign against the installment of Confucius Institutes in Canadian universities, a Chinese organization that aims to promote Chinese culture and language. SFT saw the Institute as an extension of China s influence into the Western society, and a threat to Tibetans living in the West. The success of this campaign lies in the SFT s strategy to not play this as a Tibetan cause but rather, as a community cause (SFT Canada) that Canadians must rally together and defend Canadian academic integrity. Recently, SFT Canada conducted a protest regarding an offensive Toronto Transit Commission advertisement about travelling to New Tibet (Shum 2016). Members of SFT Canada later explained to me that they were specifically outraged at the label of New Tibet, because for them and many Tibetans living in Toronto, it appears to allude to the erasure of Tibetan presence. Unfortunately, because I had already left Toronto at that point, I am not certain about the specifics of the protest. Toronto metro did not take down the offending poster. 1.6 Chapter Outlines In Chapter 1 will explain the concept of the Tibetan diaspora in India, Nepal and the other South Asian countries, which was motivated by the Dalai Lama s escape to India caused by growing tensions between China and Tibet. The chapter also briefly discusses the contentious history between Tibet and China. In Chapter 2, I will discuss in more detail what life as a Tibetan refugee might be like in resettlement camps in India and Nepal and how the lack of opportunities acted as a push factor that motivated some Tibetans to migrate again, this time to the west. Readers are introduced to my participants profiles and stories, how they migrated to Toronto, Canada and obtained Canadian citizenship. Through stories and reports, we see a glimpse of a life of precarious work and health in Toronto, Canada that appears to be a common experience

31 22 for many Tibetan newcomers as well as other migrants. The chapter ends with an analysis of the Tibetan community s most visible influence in Canada, the growth of Tibetan Buddhism among non-tibetan Canadians. The focus of chapter 3 is the Tibetan community in Toronto and I share findings from my fieldwork research. My participants elaborate on what determines a Tibetan space in Toronto for them, ponder deeply over how memories of migration are embedded in ethnic Tibetan food as well as contribute to a broadening of what Lhakar, the Tibetan cultural resurgence movement, means to Tibetans and how they practice Lhakar weekly. In Chapter 4 I discuss the generational perspectives as they are understood by my participants. From ideas of how to be a good Tibetan, to notions of return, the homeland and what it means to be a Tibetan in the west, many of the participants in their 20s and 30s revealed a sense of in-betweeness in their responses. Not only do they acutely feel a constant struggle to meet the older generations expectations to be a proper Tibetan, something that appears to be demonstrated through a variety of markers such as Tibetan language fluency, and knowledge of Tibetan Buddhism, these participants also feel they do not quite fit the category of first generation. This is because even though they are not born in Canada, they grew up and lived most of their lives in Canada. They went through the education system and are fluent in English. Most importantly, they can navigate around the Toronto metro system, shopping, applying for work and looking for a place to live, with the ease and familiarity of someone native-born. As such they are the generation 1.5, a group that is permanently liminal. However, despite generational differences between the older participants and younger participants, they all appear to share a common belief that has permeated many of the Tibetan communities in the west. It is a belief that they are under threat of losing the Tibetan culture as caused by assimilation into the Western culture and the lack of freedoms to practice the Tibetan Buddhist culture back in the homeland. My participants demonstrated some of the ways in which they safeguard against the continued erosion of their culture through language and cultural classes, connecting youth to their heritage through naming. In doing so, they also reveal what they view as some of the main differences between Western and Tibetan cultures, in that Tibetan communities generally have a collectivist mindset whereas the Western society champions individuality and personal success. Chapter 5 is the conclusion where I look

32 23 over what the research has contributed to the growing academic work on Tibetan communities in the west as well as share some criticism of the research.

33 24 Chapter 2 2 Tibetan Migration to Canada When the iron bird flies and horses run on wheels, the Tibetan people will be scattered like ants across the face of the earth, and the dharma will come to the land of the red men Padmasambhava, 8 th Century (Soucy, Hori, & Harding 2010:322). This quote is an 8 th Century prophecy regarding the future of Tibet by Padmasambhava, a revered Tibetan Buddhist Master who introduced Buddhism to Tibet (Danyluk 2002:9). Many Tibetans believe his prediction foretold the Tibetan diaspora and the promise of justice. The exile of His Holiness the 14 th Dalai Lama, Tibet s Spiritual leader, in 1959 caused thousands of Tibetans to migrate out of China to India and Nepal. In 1971, Tibetan refugees from India became one of the first non-european refugees to migrate to Canada. The first waves of Tibetan refugees established networks of support and started many diaspora Tibetan communities around the world. The first 228 Tibetan refugees, age range between 15 years old to 44 years old (Dirks 1977:236), arrived in 1970 and established the first networks of support for the Tibetan community in Canada. The Tibetan refugees were settled in 11 municipalities across Ontario, Quebec and Alberta. The federal government decided that the future acceptance of Tibetan refugees would depend on the successful settlement of this first group of 228 individuals (Raska 2015). The new arrivals experienced very different forms of welcome depending on the regions they were assigned. In Quebec, Tibetan refugees were offered language and job training while the other provinces provide little to no resources and support. On December , the Harper Conservative Government passed a temporary refugee policy allowing up to 1000 Tibetan refugees from Arunachal Pradesh, Northern India, to settle in Canada within the next five years. The policy specified that each incoming Tibetan refugee must be sponsored by an organization or a group of five : five

34 25 community members will divide up providing the newcomer with emotional, financial, legal support, accommodations and help them find employment. While there are no significant international events in 2010 that suggest the Canadian government s motivations, there are various factors that likely contributed to the passing of the temporary refugee bill (C. and I. C. Government of Canada 2011); Canada s support of Tibet, the significant number of politically-active Tibetan Canadian organizations, and the fact that every Tibetan arrival will be privately sponsored through the group of five model. Today there are around 6000 Tibetans living in Canada with two thirds of the whole Tibetan community living in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) (S. C. Government of Canada 2014). The GTA offer an ideal place for the Tibetan community because it has an established network of support, many notable Tibetan associations such as the Ontario Tibetan Women s Association and Student for Free Tibet Canada. Most importantly, there is a Tibetan Canadian Cultural Center. The majority of Tibetans who move to Toronto first settle in the Parkdale neighborhood. There are more social services and resources such as legal aid and translation services available in this neighborhood to meet the needs of the high number of Tibetans. As a poorer area of Toronto, housing is also more affordable, though that is changing with increased tensions between landlords and tenants (Slater 2003: 26). The lower cost of housing and accessibility of services as well as proximity to established Tibetans make the Parkdale neighborhood an ideal place to start out. Lau states that economic activity and work present crucial social processes that enable a migrant group to construct a life-world in and with their new, postmigration surroundings (Lau 2013:330). The ethnic Tibetan community in Canada actively supports local Tibetans, resettles Tibetan refugees, and raises funds for Tibetan resettlement camps and campaigns for Tibet s independence. There are five major Tibetan Canadian organizations; Canada Tibet Committee (CTC), Project Tibet, Friends of Tibet, Canadian Tibetan Woman Association (TWA) and Student for Free Tibet. CTC was established in 1987 by a group of Tibetans and non-tibetans to help with the Free Tibet movement. It presents itself as a representative of the Tibetan movement in Canada (CIC 2007). Project Tibet is a

35 26 temporary organization that emerged in order to facilitate the 2011 resettlement project started by the Canadian government (Project Tibet Society). TWA was established in India with more than 54 chapters worldwide with the aim of empowering poor Tibetan women (Tsering 2011:12). Students for Free Tibet (SFT) consists of university student clubs that focus on activism and the Free Tibet movement. In the few decades they have lived in Canada, the members of the Tibetan community have successfully integrated and recreated meaningful lives. Some of these members are my participants. Nobden was born in a small Tibetan settlement village in South India. Since migrating to Canada, she has been back to India twice to visit family as well as to volunteer at the local Tibetan school. Fiona attended the Tibetan Children s Village boarding school in New Delhi for seven months before migrating to Canada. Because of her poor English at the time, Fiona said that she was not able to attend classes and was instead enrolled in English Second Language class. Fiona also remembered the difficulties she initially had in adapting to life in Canada because of the English language barrier. Sue was born in Dharmasala, India, where her parents owned a successful carpet business. Lhamo was born in Karnataka and grew up in Tamil Nadu, South India. Her parents owned a street vending business. She attended an English School and can speak Hindi, Tamil and English fluently. She did not know how to speak Tibetan and did not know much about Tibet as a child because she grew up in a Tamil majority community. Unlike the other participants who have some basic knowledge of Tibetan before coming to Canada, Lhamo states that she learned Tibetan after coming to Canada. Lhamo said she adapted quickly to the Canadian society thanks to her English education. Rachel was born in Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal. She grew up living in both Nepal and India, and attending English boarding schools. She was studying in an American university when her family immigrated to Canada.

36 Life in India and Nepal Tibetans fled when they found they could not live freely as Tibetans in their homeland due to the homogenizing influences of the Chinese citizenship. The exile of their spiritual leader, the 14 th Dalai Lama, was the catalyst that started the first wave of Tibetan refugee migration. The majority of Tibetans followed the Dalai Lama and settled in India, however some also settled in the neighboring Himalayan countries such as Bhutan and Nepal (Gamble & Ringapontsang 2013:35). Tashi recount the story of his grandparents fleeing Tibet to India, building roads in India and eventually settling down in Dharmasala. Tashi: This is kind of what happened, so naturally. The reality of the situation is such that the circumstances they were in. When they first came, the Indian government was gracious enough to welcome in the Tibetans. Because we had nowhere to go. Everybody was running away. Tibetans they don't have an army. There was nothing like that. Especially any type of military force that could even give China a challenge. It was just night and day, the technology, tanks. So my parents and a lot of other Tibetans, they escaped through the mountains and the first place they ended up in was India. And because the Indian government have respect for Buddhism, actually Buddhism was born in India and then brought to Tibet. So when the Dalai Lama was escaping and reached out to them saying this is what's happening, we are being attacked and people are dying. Is it ok to come? They welcomed us with opened arms. Once we got there, it wasn't easy though. It wasn t a free roll, a free ride. They don't have a system like Canada. Everyone over there had to really fend for themselves. So they used to make roads. My grandmother and them, they built this long highway. They were a part of building that highway, and the funny thing is that every time they move the highway, they would move the camp. So they would move down the road more. But a lot of people died making this road, from accidents, slips, falling into rivers, things like that. So I think once they paved that, my parents paved the way for them [India], they see how much they've done and how much they've

37 28 gave back to India by building this road and dams. And without much complaints, there's nobody complaining. Sad.They were happy actually, because they were able to do this. Eventually that free labour, or cheap labour, set up the area of Dharmasala. And then they made Dharmasala, designated Dharmasala for the Dalai Lama to stay and then from there everybody migrated, Tibetans migrated there and it became this community (Recorded Interview, August 2016). India s President Jawaharlal Nehru showed personal interest in the Tibetan refugee problem since the first wave of Tibetan refugee to India in The cultural and religious ties between India and Tibet helped foster an atmosphere of welcome and sympathy (Tsering 2011:2). The Dalai Lama set up the Tibetan government in exile, also known as the Central Tibetan Administration and institutions such Tibetan Performing Arts and Tibetan Children s Village boarding schools to preserve Tibetan culture. There are two Tibetan Children s Village boarding schools in India. Students often have to live apart from their families for years in order to get a Tibetan education. Many of my participants have memories of living in India and Nepal. They revealed how their Tibetan communities and settlement villages differed widely depending on the region of India they live in. There are more than 35 Tibetan settlements in India (Tsering 2011:3). Tibetans have limited access to jobs in these resettlements in the agricultural, handicraft work sectors. The Central Tibetan Administration 2009 planning commission found that the main economic activities in a survey sample of 28,698 Tibetan refugees in India include cultivator (2,337), sweater seller (4,714), teacher (2,018), CTA related services (2,993), NGO services (757), Household work (872), Health services (1,534), Others (9,603) and Unknown (3,870). These findings show that Tibetans have some access to low-skill job opportunities in the resettlement camps. However, young Tibetans are increasingly frustrated at the lack of better work opportunities and look elsewhere for work. Similarly, new arrivals at these resettlements struggle to find work and businesses that have not already been taken by established Tibetan residents, creating tensions between them. As time went on, the situation in Tibet did not improve and the resettlement camps

38 29 were becoming too crowded with new arrivals. Since the 1980s, India has started making individual Tibetans re-register their Registration certificate once or twice a year, a mandatory practice even for those who were born in India; Tibetans and Indians begun to feel Tibetan refugees have overstayed their welcome in India and Tibetans were increasingly experiencing the lack of belonging. As Oha explains: Exile, as a removal from home, orchestrates an in-betweenness: the exiled person is neither here nor there, even in the choice of language to express self. Exile is somewhere, but, psychologically, the exiled person is nowhere (2008:87). At every check-point and office, I am an Indian-Tibetan. My Registration Certificate, I renew every year, with a salaam. A foreigner born in India (Falcone & Wangchuk 2008:164). Tibetans in India and Nepal feel as though they are forever visitors. Some Central Tibetan Administration officials believe this environment is necessary, even good, because it reminds Tibetans that they are not home (2008:176), Scholar Gamble and Ringapontsang (2013) criticize the Central Tibetan Administration s inaction in addressing the long term precariousness Tibetans in South Asia experience because of their statelessness. Falcone & Wangchuk (2008) also note that the majority of Tibetans living in exile reject any creolization of Tibetan identity with influences from the host countries. In general, my participants feel that Tibetans living in the west should have a collective responsibility to preserve Tibetan Buddhism, language, culture, history and tradition. Any creolization would spur paranoia of tainting and deterring preservation efforts, a notion reinforced by what some may see as the loss of their culture due to Chinese occupation in Tibet as well as the pervading influences of Western cultures. Some Tibetans living in India are ambivalent about their statelessness. This is because CTA discourages Tibetans living in South Asia from actively seeking citizenship,

39 30 advocating statelessness as Tibetan patriotism (Falcone & Wangchuk 2008:176). This has created resentment among some Tibetans, who need citizenship in order to own land and businesses in India and Nepal. In India and other South Asian countries, many of my participants explained that Tibetans are treated unequally. They could never become citizens and vote, even if they have lived there all their lives. The precariousness that comes with living as a Tibetan in South Asia makes it difficult for them to get an education, start a business long-term, or travel, and they live with a looming threat of being displaced. India and the Himalayan countries have all adopted the assumption that Tibetans themselves do not wish for citizenship, forcing those who wants citizenship to obtain it through informal channels. For example, so-called Gyagar Khampas, or Kinnauris, Spitis or Ladakhis, and so on, are Indian citizens, but by virtue of their Tibetan ethnicity, or religio-cultural affiliations with Tibetans, have been well placed to help Tibetan refugees as go-betweens and as brokers, sometimes legally and sometimes illegally, assisting Tibetans in exile to purchase land or to acquire Indian citizenship. For example, Tibetans would pay to be adopted by Gyar Khampas family and seek citizenship as a Gyar Khampa. The average rate of illegally procuring such documents in 2006 was around 30, 000 Indian rupees or 600 Canadian dollars, but they were considered an investment by many who procured them. These passports are not legally on the books, and therefore are non-renewable, so Tibetans in exile who need these documents may have to purchase them again and again (Falcone & Wangchuk 2008: 171). While many Tibetans who manage to procure such passports say it makes going to school and travelling easier due to the illicit nature of these documents, Tibetans often have to purchase them annually or whenever they need them. The accumulated high costs and nature of the illegal documents put the recipients in a precarious position for future blackmail, making these practices unreasonable and impractical in the long term. Scholars such as Frechette (2004) and Falcone & Wangchuk (2008) examine how Tibetan businessmen have navigated through economic and political structures by (illegally) passing as Indian and Nepalese. In the precarious lives of stateless Tibetans, citizenship and temporary visas are becoming nothing more than documentation to travel legally. However, immigration officers are wary of granting visas to Tibetans due to the

40 31 rise of illegal documents in Nepal and India. This makes it harder for Tibetans to travel abroad. 2.2 Motivations to Head West The participants I interviewed all had family members and friends all around the world, in South Korea, India, Nepal, the Americas and Europe. They have a transnational social network that stretches around the globe. They listed four motivations for Tibetans to head west; better education, more opportunities, being treated equally and family reunification Better Education Lhamo s mother did not have an opportunity to get an education because she had to start working at a young age to support her family. As such, she wanted her children to come to Canada and get the education she was deprived of. Lhamo said that the school system is much better in Canada because students are encouraged to think critically, it was all memorization at her former school in Tamil Nadu, South India. Lhamo: Definitely, I guess what I can talk about is the school system. It's so much more different because here you are encouraged to learn and understand the meaning behind what you are learning. Whereas in India you are taught memorizing everything. Just want to see what you can copy and paste to an exam right? And it's not the best way to learn. I went to school there until grade 6 and never had an opportunity to play any sports. I didn't know a single sport, I got to touch a volleyball once but I think it was actually a soccer ball used as a volleyball. And then when I came here, sports became a major factor in my life. So lots of things are different compare to India (Recorded Interview, August 2016). A mutual understanding shared among all my participants, older and younger, was that the move ultimately was for the next generation, so that the next generation will have more opportunities, better education and good jobs. The older generations migrated to

41 32 the west for the future generations both to ensure the individual success of their children and the collective survival of their Tibetan Buddhist culture More Opportunities Dolma: Unless they are very dedicated. They don't go back. I mean it's the same, my auntie she stayed on in England but she volunteered in India for many years. And now she is doing something that is close to her heart, to give back to the community. And she is only able to do that because she lived in England. Otherwise, there won't be...some people they do a bit of naming and shaming. They are seen as more of a waste. A wasted resource that could be allocated to somebody else who is more dedicated. My cousin is one of them (laugh) A few years ago and there was literally a poster of people who didn't come back. I think the smaller communities sometimes they do things that are unethical. Like oh my god did they really do that?! (Recorded Interview, August 2016). In terms of opportunities, my participants defined them broadly as employment, financial stability, and to make something of oneself. On whether there are any tensions between one s personal aspirations and the tenets of Buddhism, my participants in general appear to believe that such duality can exist. Tenzin believes that more Tibetans will migrate to the west as the remaining businesses in the resettlement camps become less in demand. Tibetans living in South Asian countries work mostly in the sweater and winter clothes trade. However, he feels that with global warming, even this industry will dry up. With fewer jobs, Tibetans would have no choice but to migrate. Sue said that everyone in India wanted to migrate to the west these days. Sue: I'm sure a lot of my cousins would like to come here and in that sense I feel super lucky. I could have been back there wanting to come here. Though sometimes I found myself feeling my cousins are so lucky, they get to be there, living peaceful and happy lives. But I'm sure if there's a switch between me and my cousin I would probably be like, Oh my cousin is lucky, to live in Canada. (Recorded Interview, August 2016).

42 To Be Treated Equally The whole thing about being a refugee in India, no matter where you go in India you are always a refugee (Lhamo (Recorded Interview, August 2016). Rachel discussed how some Tibetan businessmen have been getting around the barriers to start businesses by illegally obtaining a Nepalese passport. But it is a risky affair. Rachel points out if, for example, the businessman had obtained the illegal document through a corrupt official, that official can now regularly blackmail the businessman for campaign money. He can't go to the police because you are afraid that the police will question your papers (Recorded Interview, August 2016) Tibetan artist Tashi Norbu experienced a different kind of precariousness as a child in Bhutan when the Bhutanese government gave the Tibetans living in the country an ultimatum. Tashi: Yeah, in my family [first generation]. First in my family, they all came after me. We all moved to Holland. I was born in Bhutan. We had to move from Bhutan for some political reasons. You know China makes trouble for Tibetans in India, same thing happen in Bhutan. That was in the 80s. Then we had to move in I was like 8 years and a half. [Moved to a Tibetan settlement camp in India] Diyin: And so you were Tibetan refugees then? Tashi: Yeah, we were Tibetan refugees. Diyin: Did you move to one of the resettlement camp areas? Tashi: Yes, in Dehradun area, Dehradun, it s called. There was a normal Tibetan school especially for Tibetans students. Actually we had a choice to live in Bhutan or we leave, so um, we were told like we had to become Bhutanese or something if we stayed there. Diyin: So they offered you citizenship? Tashi: Some kind of, yeah, like rights and all. So you leave or you stay. So then um, yeah, so we left because actually Tibetan studies and all are

43 34 better in India. Because Dalai Lama never visited Bhutan you know (Recorded Interview, August 2016). In the west, Tibetans would be treated the same as the others, they can get a better education and most importantly, they can dream big. Lhamo said that in Canada, a Tibetan can even dream about becoming the Prime Minister. Lhamo: Yes, opportunities, being treated equally. Simple. Because in Tibet right now that is not a possibility. Being Tibetan you don't even get house to rent, even if you can financially afford it. Even if they can, because they are Tibetan they often don't get it, yes in Tibet. So they don't get treated equally. And then in India, no matter how well you do or how successful you become there's always going to be a glass ceiling above you. You wouldn't be able to surpass and compete with Indian top CEOs if you wanted to be up there. It is just not a possibility as of right now. So coming to a place where you can start equal as everyone else, you have a chance to get somewhere. Even in India, even people not as financial well-off as you are, they can still have a chance to be prime minister. We would never have a chance because we are not even considered citizens. So coming to a country like Canada, I can dream about becoming the prime minister if I wanted to, and it's ok (Recorded Interview, August 2016) Family Reunification Dolma s story about growing up away from her family is unfortunately a common one. Families regularly send their children to the Tibetan Children s Village boarding schools and only see them during the holidays for many years. Dolma s siblings were sent to the Tibetan Children s Village boarding school while she was sent to live with her aunt in England. Dolma s parents were able to give Dolma and her siblings a better education, but at a price of Dolma losing touch with her biological siblings. Her motivation to settle in Toronto was to get to know her biological sister better.

44 Some Issues with Migrating to the West Having grown up in England most her life, Dolma said she cannot communicate properly with her biological mother in Tibetan. Her distance from her mother is a result of her being cut off from her Tibetan community at her early age. Another negative effect Dolma mentioned is a brain drain of Tibetan talents in South Asia. Fiona also points out how as more and more Tibetan families move to the United States or Canada, they feel less connected to India and to Tibet because they all just moved out. Fiona: For me, I have some people to connect back to, talk to because some of my family members are there. So I feel pretty well connected. But for some other people I think it's different they feel like they don't have anyone living in Tibet (Recorded Interview, August 2016). 2.3 Motivation for Citizenship Despite the CTA s discouragement of Tibetans living in South Asia from taking citizenship, Tibetans living abroad are actually encouraged to take citizenship if possible as a way to enhance their economic and political power in the host countries in the Americas and Europe and act as Tibet s ambassadors (Hess, 2003, 2006). Tibetan identity outside of South Asia takes on a dual role of preserving and displaying Tibetan language, culture, traditions and spirituality. One of my participants is a permanent resident who intends to apply for citizenship soon, another is an asylum claimant and the rest of my participants are Canadian citizens. Diyin: So are you currently a citizen (Canadian)? Lhamo: Yes. Making it easier for me to travel. My family too. They have citizenship. As of right now, before citizenship, we didn't belong anywhere, it's hard to travel. That's why people struggle to come from India to here. Especially Tibetan refugees because the UN I don't think have actual documentation that defines them as a refugee. And then if

45 36 they are not then they must be Indian that's what is assumed. So then they have to apply through an Indian passport but they don't have an Indian passport, they'll never have an Indian passport. Unless somehow I came here and I apply because I live here alone, I need my family and try to immigrate my family here. That's the only way it's working so far. Diyin: Through family reunification? Lhamo: And that process is super long and something I am working on here [at the Legal services] (Recorded Interview, August 2016). Having citizenship gives my participants a sense of security. Rachel spoke about how with a Canadian passport it is even possible to travel to Tibet. Citizenship also makes them feel accepted in the west, something they could not achieve living in India and the other South Asian countries. Fiona also added to the point of how having Canadian citizenship makes travelling safer by recounting how one Tibetan-American film maker was arrested in Tibet and made it back to Canada. Fiona: Did you hear about the story about this film maker? He lived in the western country but then he decided to take a tour of Tibet or China. And then he was like arrested at the airport. This film maker he was basically arrested at the airport and he was just travelling, not doing anything. He was an American citizen. So I think to have citizenship you feel more protected and you feel like...not your identity but feel like you are protected as a person when you travel around the world (Recorded Interview, August 2016). 2.4 From Refugee to Citizen All my participants are Canadian citizens except for Shing and Tenzin, both of whom are currently in different stages of the naturalization process. It is long and tedious. Tenzin said he should have gotten his Canadian citizenship last year, but he had to leave just short of fulfilling his residency requirement. Canadian residency requires that one has to

46 37 be physically present in Canada for at least 730 days (two years) in every five-year period. The five-year period is assessed on a rolling basis (OCASI 2016). Tenzin: I am supposed to apply the full citizenship last year in April, April15 but I was going to India. If I apply, I m not supposed to be out of the country for a few months. Because my dad had a heart surgery. He had a pacemaker and then I went to see my teacher. He was old and a little bit sick. So then I saw [at] my teacher and then I saw my father. But my teacher, he passed away April 28 so I was happy that I saw him this year in January. So if I go this year, I cannot see him, lucky, fortunate you know? Buddhism teacher is very important person who show you light, path, guidance you know. He's like my leader. My hero. He's 85 he passed away April 28. No I was not there but I saw him in January for ten days fortunately you know. I was lucky. No regrets that I saw him this, this year. Diyin: But that s why you couldn t get your citizenship, are you applying later then? Tenzin: No, before like a new refugee comes here, before old law is you are here, apply the paper. You approved. Two years is one year. But the Conservatives, Stephen Harper s government, they made the new law Yeah I don t like Conservative anymore, I like Liberal or NDP. Because new law, actually don t make any sense, because that law is based on my time moving here, they said two year one year. But now the new law from since last year, like June 15, they said, you have no PR card 5 years, 0. That don t make any sense, they make new law. Otherwise I m already here for five years you know? But it's ok, I'll be citizen within a year you have to fill out the form, 8 months, then nowadays the exam is so difficult for a lot of people who don't speak English, no chance the Conservative government made it very hard for the immigrants. So a lot of immigrants don't like conservatives anymore.

47 38 Liberal and NDP more chances to win support (Recorded Interview, August 2016). Tashi migrated to Canada with his family from Dharmasala, India. He was among the first wave of Tibetans to arrive in the government project. He and his family were first placed in the city of Belleville, where his parents both worked two jobs in order to support him and his sister. They worked as cleaners in the daytime, then at McDonalds. This enabled Tashi to become independent at a very young age. He remembers having a daily routine at the age of eight; waking up to make breakfast for himself and his sister, then taking the bus together to go to school. Life was not easy. Tashi was thankful that because they were chosen through a government project, they did not have to worry about much of the paperwork that came with migrating and getting citizenship. This was a huge burden off their backs, as Tashi exclaimed, because his parents had no English skills at the time. They were able to focus on finding jobs, and settling down in a new environment. He also noted that there are legal services available in Parkdale to help with letter writing. This is an essential service for many Tibetan newcomers who may have limited English skills and have trouble filling out the forms properly. You make one mistake and they send it back and that was six months of waiting (Recorded Interview, August 2016). Sending in correctly completed forms would avoid the backlog and help speed up the citizenship application process. Dolma was the only dual citizenship holder, having both a British and Canadian passport. Though she said that since the passing of her adopted father, she has less reason to go back to the UK and will stay in Toronto with her family. Tenzin had an opportunity to get Canadian citizenship but something happened in India that forced him to leave before fulfilling the five years residency requirement. He felt that Harper s government made the path to citizenship extremely restrictive. But it is still better than America. Tenzin: The American law, once you get in, you go out you cannot apply for refugee. Canada is much better. Easy for the Tibetan people. Lot of Tibetans move to New York or America, they don't get that American paper. That's why they come to Canada you know. They re more generous, Canadians. But some Tibetans born in Tibet they still not

48 39 getting American papers, they get Canadian paper (Recorded Interview, August 2016). Though the majority of Tibetans I spoke with explained their journeys of migration to Canada vaguely, ambiguously, mostly referring to their motivations for migrating. This could be because many of them came as children and did not have a clear understanding of the immigration process. Sue: I'm not sure? I think speaking from my parents' [experience], most people who come here, people like my parents, aunts and uncles, once again it's not for them. It's for their kids. A lot of time it's like that. Back in Nepal we had a pretty decent life. It wasn't super hard. My parents had a business there and it was doing great. But just for the kids and their future. They thought that either America, Europe, Canada, can offer a better future, a more set life, proper career. I know a lot of people came for their kids. In fact, coming here it's even harder for them sometimes than life back there. They had to start from the bottom basically and go to the top. They [people back in India] think it's a land of opportunity but it's also really hard to sustain a life here. It's not the easier in the world and I know a lot of Tibetans who think it's a land of opportunity and have to work super work, working labour jobs and it's not as pretty as you imagine when you are working in those areas (Recorded Interview, August 2016). I did get a sense that some Tibetans, such as Shing, Tenzin and Tashi, did manage to migrate to Canada on visas and then apply for refugee asylum. Tenzin said that based on his experiences having lived in New York, the Canadian immigration system is more welcoming to Tibetan refugees in comparison to the immigration system in the United States. If this is true, it would certainly be a major motivator to migrate to Canada. Of the more than 6000 recorded Tibetans living in Canada, over two thirds live in Toronto. Even though Toronto in general has a higher cost of living compared to smaller Canadian

49 40 cities and rural areas, Tibetans have more support, resources and job opportunities in a metropolis. Tenzin: It's easy to get a job in Toronto you know, because if you go to remote area there is no job. Where my sister lived [illegible], she lose one job it takes another year to get a job. Small places very quiet, beautiful but it's difficult to get a job to survive you need a job. My teacher call it a survival job. Just to pay your bill you get a job (Recorded Interview, August 2016). A common occurrence for many of the youth and established Tibetan-Canadians I interviewed, is not quite remembering how their family managed to migrate here. The majority have also never been to Tibet and do not have any direct memories of the homeland. Six decades of exile have led to most of my interviewees being born in India or Nepal. Most also struggled to remember the parts of Tibet their family hailed from. But they can remember with sharp details their living experiences in India or Nepal. This was exemplified when Sue showed me her love for Bollywood movies. Dolma elaborated on how migration to the west may be the only option for Tibetan women in resettlement camps. Here she showed some ambivalence regarding her own childhood growing up in a western country. While living in the west has provided her with more opportunities than she would have likely not get in the resettlement camps, she wondered what life might have been like if she had stayed. 2.5 Tibetan Community in Canada: Precarious Work and Health Fiona: Yeah so they have to start all over again. And then there's so much paper work to get a job permit, to get a job and if you don't speak English that's impossible for you. And the immigration office, they don't have a lot of funding and most of them work for free overtime a lot of time (Recorded Interview, August 2016).

50 41 The majority of those in the first wave of Tibetans in Canada worked in agriculture, the service industry and craft related industries. According to Brian J. Given, the Tibetan refugees have done especially well in the caring professions, such as working in hospitals or homes for senior citizens due to the Tibetan Buddhist values of compassion and respect for life (Raska 2015). Like many new immigrants in Canada, Tibetans have to start over. They have to face a multitude of barriers from a lack of English or French skills, to limited finances. They have to find a place to live, and most importantly, find employment that would readily accept a newcomer. Fiona: For me, language barrier was a big thing. Not being able to communicate. But I think it differs because for me, I came as a child, 8 years old. Me coming as a child the biggest barrier was being able to speak to people and learn the English education. For other people, much older and have to survive here, the barriers might be getting job, finding a place to live so it differs base on what your situation is and what your age is (Recorded Interview, August 2016). Many first- generation Tibetans are relegated to low-income, blue-collar work, with the exception of those who have the opportunity to go through the Canadian education system and become more familiar with ways to navigate the Canadian system; how to look for work, book an appointment with a doctor, use public transportation and more. Diyin: Do you find that for people to come here, is there a financial barrier? Fiona: Yeah, I definitely think there is. Only thing I can say about that is that when you are in India. One dollar here is like 50 dollars there, or 48 rupees. Over there you feel like, oh yeah I have all this money and then you come here. Everything gets reduced by 50 times less. So just with that I can see that there would be a financial barrier. And then the jobs that they paid over there and the jobs here. Even if the work is the same, the pay is much less. And when you convert that it's even less. And a lot

51 42 of the times people over there have very high degrees, they come here and their degrees are not even recognized (Recorded Interview, August 2016). Ryerson University in collaboration with community partners, recently published a report on the health impacts of precarious work on racialized immigrant women in Toronto (Ng, Sundar, Karpoche & al. 2016). 18 out of the 40 women profiled were Tibetan from India or Nepal. The study found that the majority of racialized migrant women continue to work in the care industry, this includes personal care, healthcare and childcare (ibid: 3). Working in the care industry makes it impossible to have a normal home/work balance as often time they are part-time on-call. Their lack of control over their work schedule looms as a constant uncertainty and unpredictable interruption over their lives. Many of the Tibetan migrant women who came as refugee claimants also have to worry about the uncertainty of their status. Because of the long and unpredictable hours, as well as the work environment in the care industry, their health may be compromised. The Ryerson report also found that 75% of the participants are in part-time or casual, on-call work. The 25% that do have full-time work, but work long, unpredictable shifts and they never knew when they may be laid off or lose their jobs should there be a workplace closure. Finally, the report concluded that the main cause of the precarious in these women s situation is the lack of social capital and networking available to newcomers. In addition to unstable employment, Tibetans living in the Parkdale area also face the danger of being evicted and displaced. Community Legal Education Ontario published an account of the uncertainty that may be experienced by Tibetans who rent apartments in Parkdale: Property manager Akelius Canada applied to increase the rent at 188 Jameson Ave. by 4.1 per cent in 2014; this year it doubled down, seeking a 4.6 per cent hike. At least 50 residents of the midrise apartment building, including many Tibetan refugees, say they can't afford to pay that much and are planning to protest outside Akelius' Toronto head office Monday (2015).

52 43 Parkdale Community Legal Services provides free legal help to residents who live within their catchment and fall into their financial eligibility criteria. The Parkdale Community Legal Services has helped Tibetans fight unfair evictions and other legal issues with their landlords. Tashi notes that despite the challenges Tibetans may face in adapting to life in Canada, they must still remember to represent Tibet in a good light and spread awareness about Tibet. That is the collective responsibility they have towards Tibet. A constant reminder that the freedoms they enjoy are in stark contrast to the lack of freedom and restrictions on Tibetans in Tibet. Tashi: I try to make it a point to be active. I make a conscious effort to always be, like His Holiness say, a spokesperson. Kind of an ambassador. Wherever you go, you are always going to represent Tibet and then it's our job to always have our best foot forward. To show our best qualities and share it to other people. At the same time make them think about what's happening inside Tibet. I've probably lived my life, I think since my twenties I decided this is what I've got to do. But at the same time you've got to work; you've got to pay bills. Just surviving on a daily basis you have to do just that but then we have all this extra burden that we need to carry. And then you try to balance it physically, emotionally, financially, all those things. I think in my case Tibetans have survived up to now. They are secured and they have a job. I think they work very hard (Recorded Interview, August 2016). 2.6 Tibetan Buddhism in Canada As Tibetan communities strive to preserve their heritage, scholars such as Appell (1988) and Soucy et al., (2010) notice an emerging community of Westerners who convert to Tibetan Buddhism. The phenomenon holds true in the Canadian context, where there are now many Tibetan monasteries in Canada being maintained by Western monks and nuns. There is a relationship of reciprocity between the ethnic Tibetan community and non- Tibetan Canadians; a significant number of Canadians have converted to Tibetan Buddhism since the religion s debut in Canadian society three decades ago. As McLellan

53 44 explains, Buddhism as a practice or philosophy received little to no popular recognition or support prior to the 1960s, despite a relatively lengthy history in Canada (McLellan 1999:11, 35; Danyluk 2002:2). The popularity of Tibetan Buddhism in Canada and the United States among westerners that distinguishes it from Chinese and Japanese Buddhism traditions, and can be attributed to politics, popular media and the digestibility of Tibetan religious practices and traditions as a philosophy and mindful meditation. A quick google search will show a list of celebrities who, at some point in time, supported the Tibetan movement by hosting a fundraising concert or donning a Free Tibet bandana. The religion of an oppressed people, and high-profile celebrity association makes Tibetan Buddhism very appealing to Westerners (Soucy et al. 2010:336). This has created a refracted community (Appell 1988:10) of Western Buddhism that is based on abstracts of Tibetan Buddhism. The types of Tibetan monasteries/meditation centers that have one Tibetan lama (monk) and a Western membership exist in the space between two mirrors one reflecting elements of Tibetan culture, the other reflecting a particular way of viewing Western culture (Appell 1988:12). Despite the growth of this refracted community that is built on an abstract of Tibetan culture and religion, scholars such as Appell (1988) and Soucy et al., (2010) remark on the lack of interaction between the ethnic Tibetan community and the refracted community. Westerners in particular are optimistic about the future of Tibetan Buddhism in the west. The relationship between Tibetans and Westerners will likely continue to be renegotiated as more Westerners become involved in the transmission of Tibetan Buddhist teachings, blurring the seemingly distinct lines between the two communities. Events such as the reincarnation of a Tibetan lama in the form of a Western child are seen as particularly potent demonstrations of this possibility (Appell 1988, 98). Soucy et al. believe there are two main factors that were instrumental in the Western adoption of Tibetan Buddhism. The first is the Canadian government s acceptance and support for Tibetan refugees from the 1970s on and the second is the establishment of the Nova Scotia-based Shambhala International founded by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche (Soucy et al. 2010:323). Shambhala International is one of the first Tibetan Buddhist teaching center that opened in Canada. Shambhala International offers a series of meditation programs to westerners that would help them reach spiritual enlightenment.

54 45 The organization has since built an international community of practitioners. In addition, the notable works of Hess (2003, 2006, 2009) and Frechette (2002), both conclude that state and institutional support are instrumental for the successful integration of Tibetan communities. This leads to the question of the impact of Tibetan identity on Canada. Senator Consiglio Di Nino, Chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Tibet, summed it up, Canada is in a process of creating a new culture. It s difficult to say Canada does not have a culture but we really are a very young nation [ ] and I think [the Tibetan contribution] would be immense. (Tharchin Goenpo 2010). 2.7 Chapter Summary The majority of Tibetans who first fled from Tibet settled in Nepal because was the first point of contact after they made it through the Himalayan Mountains, and then to India where Tibetans and Indians shared similar spiritual roots in Buddhism. Unfortunately, Tibetans living in South Asia have a lot of difficulty improving their living conditions, education and employment because it is impossible to legally get citizenship. This motivated a second migration to the west in search of better education and more opportunities for future generations of Tibetans. Tibetans who decided to settle in Canada were influenced by factors such as family reunification, word of mouth regarding the vibrant Tibetan community in Parkdale and so on. It is also possible to obtain citizenship in Canada and my informants all support the necessity of citizenship as protection, making it easier to travel, to get a job and feel accepted as part of the Canadian society. Tibetan communities have flourished in Canada since the 1970s and one of their impacts in Canada is the spread of Tibetan Buddhism among Canadians. The next chapter will focus on the Tibetan community in Toronto, Ontario and explore some of the reasons why Tibetans are finding Toronto to be an appealing location to settle down. In this chapter, I will also discuss how the Parkdale area has unofficially become Little Tibet among Tibetans living in Toronto. My informants will share their perspectives on living as Tibetans, identify Tibetan spaces in Toronto and what Lhakar means to them. The chapter ends with an analysis of ethnic Tibetan food, how the

55 46 memories of forced migration are embedded and experienced through the consumption of ethnic Tibetan food.

56 47 Chapter 3 3 The Tibetan Community in Toronto From the initial small number of 228, the Tibetan community in Canada has grown to over 6000, with some of my participants claiming the number could be higher as those waiting for asylum are not recorded. In this chapter, I ask: How has the community thrived for nearly five decades in exile and in a western society that generally regards Tibetan Buddhist culture as one of its many foreign, immigrant religions and subcultures? 3.1 In Search of Little Tibet in Toronto Figure 2: Map of Little Tibet, Toronto. This is the map of the unofficial Little Tibet, Toronto on the 2016 Momo Crawl Passport. Nine Tibetan restaurants are depicted as various colourful checkpoints on the map (Photo taken by myself). One of the goals of this research is to identify some of the major Tibetan spaces of belonging (Robin 2001) in Toronto. These include events that are politically, socially and culturally Tibet-related. This chapter will share the various narratives and experiences from Tibetans living in Toronto, and discuss the notable Tibetan spaces identified by the research participants as well as from data collected during fieldwork research. These spaces can be temporary and permanent, ranging from organized activities, socials and organizations that cater to the needs of Tibetans living in Toronto.

57 48 While there are many temporal Tibetan spaces that appear, and disappear, leaving behind a trail of Facebook photos and videos, there are two Tibetan spaces that are undeniably permanent and etch out potential physical locations for Little Tibet, Toronto, albeit unofficially. The two spaces include the Parkdale neighborhood and the Toronto Tibetan Cultural Center based in Etobicoke. My participants had a variety of opinions about the idea of Little Tibet; Tashi, is a 50 years old Tibetan who lived in Toronto for a long time. He first moved there with his family a few decades ago when his dad was offered a better job as a custodian at a healthcare facility that participated in elder care. He remembers feeling apprehensive at the time. Tashi: We didn't know. A lot of people just lived in Belleville, don't move and stayed. Because back then we thought it [Toronto] was such as big city, people moving from Belleville to Toronto was like, New York you know, gangsters, a lot of crime, a lot of noise, a lot of pollution. There was a stereotype about Toronto (Recorded Interview, August 2016). By the time they moved to Toronto, life had become relatively stable for his family. His father could speak broken English, knew the law and most importantly, he could drive. Since then, Tashi has remained in Toronto and watched the community grow and thrive over the years. Today he works as a real estate agent. He is happy with the flexibility and freedom his current job gives him. During our interview, he recalled that Parkdale actually did not experience much Tibetan migration until the last 15 years when there was an influx of newly arrived Tibetans to Toronto. More services and support such as housing, social services, translation services, were needed in response to the new influx. Tashi remembered being part of the early years of the Community of Tibetan Association of Ontario and watching it grow to the umbrella organization it is today. Tashi: There was the first influx of newly arrived Tibetans to Toronto. At that time, just by chance I happened to [illegible] the president of the Community of Tibetan association of Ontario. At the time, when I met the president it was 120 Tibetans roughly. Meeting regularly in the morning

58 49 so you can imagine from that, going to [now]. I just happened to be in the way, there was an influx of [Tibetans arrivals] that had really nothing to do with me. But indirectly, I just happened to be in the voyage and I was helping as much as I could, to make it as easy as possible for the transition. Once they got here, a year or two later. Then they knew each other, they got the language, apartments, housing, got established. And then everybody was just helping each other. So it was less and less. I would say mostly internal [support], just the Tibetan community but definitely there was a lot of help from outside organizations. There was a furniture bank for example. The city of Toronto, they have an Ontario works program. They help with daycare while the parents can go to an ESL class. Stuff like that. They have the libraries that issue them cards so they can use the internet. And then you can use all the resources of the Toronto public library has to offer. There's a lot of programs (Recorded Interview, August 2016). Prior to his current career as a real estate agent, Tashi was the proud owner of the Tibetan restaurant on Queen Street West. He was one of the first Tibetans to set up a restaurant in Parkdale in the early 2000s. Tashi explained to me his belief that any diasporic community needs to have certain landmarks in their resettled place to claim that space as their territory. For him, a restaurant is the ideal landmark. Now there are nine Tibetan restaurants down Queen Street W. in Parkdale. It is the locations of these restaurants that mark out the territory of Little Tibet in Parkdale in the annual Momo crawl event. Tashi: Food was another way, a main way for me to talk about Tibet without being political. And my dream was one day...you see there is a Chinatown, Koreatown, Indiantown, you can see most communities are proud of that. So those are beautiful things in a multicultural society and festivals all over the place. I've always want to see one day that happen to Tibet. One of my dreams was to maybe spark that idea. So after my first restaurant there, after a few years, now we have 8 restaurants there I think. And then one or two shops. And unofficially, by non-tibetans, now

59 50 they are calling it Little Tibet, it's kind of happening. It's beautiful I like it (Recorded Interview, August 2016). Sue s father had a friend in Toronto who recommended Parkdale as a good place with a vibrant Tibetan community, to settle in. Her parents chose to move to Toronto in hopes of creating a better future for Sue and her brother. She is currently in her second year at Ryerson University. When asked her opinion on the possibility of South Parkdale, or at least a part of it, being named Little Tibet, she supported the idea and pointed out that the Parkdale area has already unofficially become known as Little Tibet. Having lived in the Parkdale area from grade two to grade seven, Parkdale really does resonant to Sue as a Tibetan area. Little Tibet or not, it is a place where there are a lot of Tibetans. Sue: Obviously there's the community center, Parkdale is a huge area, even my high school Parkdale Collegiate Institute, it felt very Tibetan to me. Like compared to any other high schools, any school you found in Parkdale, has a lot more of that Tibetan vibe to it. And then I do know that there are a lot more Tibetans residing in the Etobicoke area. So there's like a park, I know a lot of Tibetan male youths go there to play and practice basketball. So that could be kind of be like a Tibetan place. Usually just Parkdale and a little bit of the Etobicoke area (Recorded Interview, July 2016). Lhamo is an active member of the Tibetan community in Toronto, and she is a board member of the Toronto Tibetan Cultural Center. She has spearheaded a youth engagement initiative called T-YAC, Tibetan Youth Alliance Community with nine interns 1. This was part of her current focus to bridge the gap between the generations with intergenerational activities such as the Senior Excursion to Central Island in the summer. It was a social outing organized by the T-YAC interns for the Tibetan seniors. It was a full day trip which included a picnic on Central Island, some Gorshey dancing, 1 T-YAC was a new youth initiative Lhamo created in 2016 at the Tibetan Canadian Cultural Centre as a way to address the generational gap and engage Tibetan youths with Tibetan seniors and Tibetan community through social events such as the Senior Excursion, Volleyball tournament and more.

60 51 some interns supervised and served hot Tibetan buttered tea for the seniors who played board games and card games. Some interns took another group of seniors to see the zoo on the island. Though there was at times a language barrier and generational difference between the youths and seniors, nearly everyone joined in the Gorshey dancing. It was a fun event for everyone. Finally, Lhamo is also interning at the Parkdale Legal Services. She was enthusiastic about the idea of having part of the Parkdale area officially be called, Little Tibet, because she believes it will raise awareness of Tibetan issue among non-tibetans. Fiona had some difficulties adjusting to Canadian culture when she first arrived because she did not know any English and she remembers how she was unable to make friends with the other students. Thankfully, she made friends with some of the Tibetan students at the Parkdale Public School that she attended and as a result she was not entirely alone during the difficult period of adjustment. Her new friends also helped by translating for her at times. Fiona personally benefited from living in Parkdale and getting support from established Tibetans who already lived there. Based on her experience living in Parkdale, she sees Parkdale community Information Center and Parkdale Intercultural Association as two important institutional support systems that are vital for any newly arrived Tibetans. She views Parkdale as a gateway community for Tibetan newcomers to acclimate to the Canadian society and learn about western culture. Fiona refuted the suggestion that the Tibetan community in Parkdale might deter some Tibetan newcomers from interacting with non-tibetans. Fiona: The whole point of having this well-supported community in Parkdale is to get people ready to step out and to feel comfortable in the west. But not lose their identity. And that's the other job that we have as people who are well-embedded, that they don't lose sight of their origin (Recorded Interview, August 2016). When asked what she thought of Parkdale being officially called Little Tibet, she liked the idea and argued that it would be akin to an official recognition of sovereignty.

61 52 Fiona: That would be great. What that really says is that is recognizing Tibet is different from China. Because you won't have like Chinatown, Indiantown and Pakistani town, you might but you wouldn't have like Canada town and then Toronto town. You would have like different countries so for Tibet to be recognized as Little Tibet in Parkdale, is like we're a different country (Recorded Interview, August 2016). When Nobden s family first moved to Toronto, they settled in the Parkdale area before moving to Etobicoke. She currently lives near Square One, a shopping mall in Mississauga. Nobden:...I think one of my uncle lived there. So he's like, "Oh, come! Come here! There's a, there s a Tibetan community and you just feel it right away. I understand when you are new, new to this country, you have your own, one of you, like to guide you. Another Tibetan guiding you and making you feel like it's ok to be in another country. Most Tibetans are so new to seeing all this western culture, western people. Just seeing all these different people and culture at once, I feel it's nice to just have your own people to guide you (Recorded Interview, July 2016). Nobden was ambivalent about the idea of Parkdale being officially called Little Tibet. There were two main reasons behind her ambivalence; gentrification and reputation. Ever since her family moved out of the area, she felt that the Parkdale neighborhood has become less Tibetan in the recent years. She is not wrong. In the recent decades gentrification has become a major issue in the Parkdale area. Despite Parkdale having a bad reputation as a rough area of Toronto, because of its ideal inner-city location, and scenic architectures, there is a significant number of middle-class homeowners returning to Parkdale. This has created a lot of tensions between the low-income tenants who cannot afford to live anywhere else in Toronto and the middle-class home owners who want to see Parkdale restored to its former glory and revalued (Slater 2003: 26). Landlords and investment firms have gradually raised rental prices over the years in response to the incoming middle-class homeowners and the low-income tenants find

62 53 themselves being displaced from the Parkdale neighborhood. Nobden: The Parkdale space is being more I don t know...these days, more of the businesses that are opening are not Tibetan. There are a lot of new ones and I feel like they are taking over Parkdale! [Laugh] Yeah, I think slowly slowly...before it's more Tibetan. More Tibetan people living there, it was more crowded. I think there were more restaurants I would say (Recorded Interview, July 2016). On the other hand, Nobden also noted that perhaps it was a good thing Parkdale is not officially known as Little Tibet. Parkdale has a rather unfortunate image associated with gangs, drugs and crime; it was often referred to as no place for a child to grow up (Philip 2000; Slater 2003: 23). She was understandably hesitant with the idea of her community being tied with a rougher part of town that is rife with poverty and crime. Tenzin is another one of my participants who did not feel anything about the possibility of Parkdale being official recognized as Little Tibet. He has a rather cynical and pragmatic view of the world that is influenced by his Tibetan Buddhist upbringing. He explained that part of his apathy to the idea is because he is not sure if the city would agree. For many Tibetans, Parkdale is already unofficially Little Tibet ; the sentiment is there and for Tenzin, that is enough. Tenzin: Even my, two of my friends from New York came, they are monk friends, they said oh they feel like [Parkdale] a Tibetan community. They feel like a Tibetan sentiment in Parkdale, every corner is a Tim Horton and Tibetan people. If I walk out I'll see at least 10 Tibetans every 5 seconds (Recorded Interview, July 2016). Dolma is pursuing a degree in nursing and appears rather content living in Toronto, which has a much bigger Tibetan community compared to the UK. She joked about how in the UK, nothing gets done when one meets a fellow Tibetan on the street. They would relocate to a nearby café and talk for hours on end, learning about the regions they hail from and sharing appreciation for their common identity and heritage.

63 54 Dolma: Here, there are so many Tibetans. When Tibetans meet each other on the street, they ignore each other! (Recorded Interview, August 2016). Dolma appeared to have experienced a fascinating Gemeinschaft Gesellschaft dichotomy (Tonnies 1887; Weber 1968) in Tibetan communities in the UK and in Toronto. The small, close-knit community in the UK seemed to display symptoms of a Gemeinschaft, in which community members seem to feel a deep sense of belonging and actively seek out social interactions that further enhance their relations with other Tibetans. In contrast, the bigger Tibetan community in Toronto appears to have progressed to a Gesellschaft, in which members of the Tibetan community will likely never be able to meet every other Tibetan living in Toronto. They also may not feel particularly compelled to go out of their way to meet every other Tibetans, having already established their own networks of family and friends within the community. Comparing the Tibetan community in Toronto to a Gesellschaft is not necessarily a bad thing, and Dolma felt she benefited personally when she settled in Toronto. Because of the bigger Tibetan community, there were more resources and she was able to pick up the Tibetan language faster. Dolma stated that when Tibetan friends who come from other western countries such as the United States visit Toronto, they would often say that it feels just like Tibet! Or like a Tibetan village in India. She feels more connected to the Tibetan community now. Though she notes that one of the negative aspects that comes with a bigger Tibetan community is all the gossips and backtalk that goes on. Dolma: That s one thing I discovered living in this community, that there's a lot of back talk. There's a lot of talk about how and what's being done. A lot of gossip basically. And there are a lot of people who voice their thoughts but don't do anything for the community. But I think that happens in all communities, I mean it's a small community and everyone knows everyone right? (Recorded Interview, August 2016). Part of the reason Rachel and her family settled in Parkdale was because her mother knew people and friends who lived in Parkdale and she had heard good things about the

64 55 community. She currently works at the Parkdale Legal Services. This organization has helped many Tibetan residents facing evictions, fighting unreasonable hikes in their rent, as well as most recently, supporting the unionization of Tibetan workers at the local food terminal. Parkdale Legal Services has also been involved with awareness campaigns in the past, publishing a pamphlet in 2008 which documented the experiences and difficulties of living with permanent statelessness that several Tibetans from India and Nepal experienced. Some of the main issues of their struggle in Canada were gaining citizenship and bringing their families to Canada. She made it clear that while many of their clients are Tibetan, because demographically there are more Tibetans living in the Parkdale area, Parkdale Legal Services caters to all of its residents who fits the catchment area and financial eligibility. Rachel: Parkdale Legals has been here for over 45 years. I think we celebrated our 47th anniversary this year. In terms of the Tibetan community, my understanding is that most Tibetans started coming to Parkdale in the late 90s. Before that there was one wave of Tibetan migration that was mostly in rural Ontario and that was part of Justin Trudeau's dad's resettlement program. And that was back in the 70's. We offer legal help to everyone who lives in Parkdale and there is just two eligibility criteria. One is they have to be living in the catchment area. That's Bloor Street to the north, Lakeshore to the south and I think Ossington to the east and the Humber River to the west. So it's quite large. It's not just Parkdale, it's also Swansea, it's also High Park. The next one is financial criteria, I think if you are earning over a certain amount we can't help. So only for if you have low income or no income. And the financial eligibility is set by Legal Aid Ontario so it's provincial. Precarious workers, newcomers, low-income or people on social assistance. You know people who can't afford a lawyer. So a community legal clinic, we have many in Ontario, each has a catchment area meant to serve the needs of the community. Because we are in Parkdale, demographically, a lot of our clients will be Tibetan. You live right here. It's the closest legal clinic to them (Recorded Interview, August 2016).

65 56 While the majority of my participants appears to already accept the Parkdale area as Little Tibet, it is important to note that this is an unofficial title with no involvement with Toronto City Council as of present time. While there appears to be no one person who gave Parkdale this name, Tashi attributes the growth of Tibetan restaurants as instrumental in staking out the geography of Little Tibet Toronto Tibetan Cultural Centre I conducted most of my fieldwork at the Toronto Tibetan Cultural Center. It was one of the two main Tibetan spaces that was easier for me, an outsider/researcher to navigate. Blessed by His Holiness, this was a focal point in the community where the majority of Tibetans living in Toronto feel a deep sense of connection. The origin of the Toronto Canadian Cultural Centre (TCCC), also known as Gangjong Choedenling, began with the blessing of the 14 th Dalai Lama which paved way for the construction of the community center. From the small numbers of 241 Tibetans who first arrived in Canada in 1970 and 1971, the Tibetan community in Toronto has grown to over Quoting directly from the cultural center s web page, To this day, the Tibetans here have been dedicated to preserving and promoting the values of the unique Tibetan cultural heritage in Ontario. It took another 3 years to acquire the land and finish construction, and the Tibetan Canadian Cultural Centre was officially opened on October 17, It is located on 40 Titan Road at the corner of Titan Road and Islington in the city of Etobicoke. The community center has become another permanent Tibetan space much like the Parkdale area, offering culturally and spiritually sensitive services and support for Tibetans of all ages. This includes Tibetan language and Tibetan Buddhism classes for youths, as well as a place of prayer and commune for the seniors. For many of my participants, the centre is extremely important to their sense of community. Most of them feel that the community centre is the closest place in Toronto to the 14 th Dalai Lama, thus making the community centre the closest they have ever experienced of what they think Tibet, their homeland is like. Nobden, like many other Tibetan youths who grew up in the west, confessed to feeling inadequate as a Tibetan because of her poor Tibetan language. The community centre provided a supportive and safe environment to practice her Tibetan language and learn more about her Tibetan heritage. She also saw the community center

66 57 as a dynamic space where people can brainstorm ideas on how to preserve Tibetan culture in the west. Most importantly, she felt she was able to give back to the Tibetan community by working at the community centre and connecting with the seniors. Nobden: We want to give back to the community. Most of us don't even, we barely, like us younger generation, we barely come to Tibetan events. We're so busy with our own personal lives, personal things that we forget like, ok tomorrow there is a big celebration of His Holiness. Most of us would be like, "Oh I have work." It just, times goes like that. You just lose like that whole cultural...i thought this is a way to just...summer is a very long time, summer break and I thought this would inspire me and motivate me to get hands down to community work. Being able to hear other people's ideas and communicate with others. I thought it would be a good experience and it has been a good experience. Before this, I've never really like, had a good conversation with seniors. When I see seniors I just get shy and I just say, "Tashi Delek!" and kind of you know, drift off. Because I know my Tibetan is so poor, how am I, that's so embarrassing. I don't even know how to speak my own language how can I communicate with them right? So every time I would just like, I would have that awkward feelings with anyone. But working here, I'm like, "Tashi Delek! Hi!" to grandmas and grandpas, I learn to accept that it's ok, just keep trying. Before I would have insecurities, but I would just totally shut off and walk away. But now I know that and I would say [illegible], how are you and just the little things I know. That actually makes a big difference, they are so happy. It was so nice talking to them (Recorded Interview, August 2016). Fiona also has a similar experience at the community centre and spoke about how she learned the Tibetan notational anthem at the community centre. Everyone around her speaks Tibetan and she drinks Tibetan buttered tea prepared by the grandmothers every day. She feel so Tibetan! whenever she is in the community centre.

67 58 The community centre regularly hosts community events throughout the year as a way to engage Tibetan community members and also raise money for the Tibet cause as well as for the centre. In the summer, there were many events that happened at the center, Tashi Norbu s art workshops just being one of many. There was a volleyball tournament, a Tibetan music concert, a fundraising dinner and a night time social! Things whizzed by so quickly that if my participants did not share events with me on Facebook or by word of mouth, I would have missed many events. I was disoriented by the speed and spontaneous nature of the Tibetans spaces as they appeared to come and go. This was a normal occurrence for many of my participants. Tibetan organizations, and in particularly the Tibetan cultural center, are always looking for ways to raise funds. While this was exciting news for me, it was normal for Tibetans living in Toronto. And they do not necessarily feel the need to attend every one of the activities. It is good, Tenzin claimed, time is more precious than money. Dolma says she volunteers a lot with the center because she wants to give back to the Tibetan community but also to be able to attend the events for free. The majority of Tibetans, Tenzin told me, have tight budgets and bills to pay. He appreciates the many events that the organizations come up with because they are spreading awareness about Tibet but he feels that even for a good cause, ticket prices should be limited. The majority of my participants, are not necessarily welloff, most of them are self-employed, students or retired. Despite their financial and time constraints, they feel a deep sense of obligation to participate in community events, where there are often entry fees. Their self-sacrificing actions in giving up their precious money and time go deeper than expected communal contributions, and are almost akin to acts of religious devotions and virtue to Tibetan Buddhism. Though for Tenzin, being a good Tibetan Buddhist can be trying at times, especially in the face of continued lack of appreciation and acknowledgement from community organizers. Tenzin: I think it s nice (on Tibetan community events) but too much and that is cost a lot of money and it s a headache you know. Pay money, when you go to soccer, 15 dollars ticket, then have to buy food, then have to buy the cap, buy the t-shirt, it s a lot of money. But still I am happy, it goes to a good cause but it s too much! Money money money, people are not easy to live you know. Not a rich people, Tibetans are not rich people

68 59 in this country. Hard working, there too much bills they get a headache you know. Even is good cause the money should be limit. You know every time ask big money people get bored. I believe in karma is ok but you don t believe in karma [illegible] always big money. She, they give nothing to me. People get bored with that. Buddhist center they don't help me at all. What they can, they have no money to help me you know! Even I come in new, they don t have a place to move, they can t help, they don't have any idea to where I can move. This is the hard part, yeah you have to look yourself. That s why, the community and me is different. But I support otherwise, not because they did something to me. But because I am Dalai Lama's Buddhist spirit, I am helping in the community, 70 but I don't get one momo plate. I don t get one plate in restaurant you know. You work hard that s it, it's finish. But still I am happy. Buddhism is said do good things without expect something from you (Recorded Interview, August 2016). The Toronto Tibetan Cultural Centre and the Parkdale area are two examples of permanent and physical Tibetan spaces that exist in the Greater Toronto Area. The various Tibetan social events I attended as part of the fieldwork research all occurred in these two locations. The Momo Crawl, Tashi Norbu s Art Gallery and the Wednesday Gorshey nights take place in South Parkdale, while Tashi Norbu s art workshop took place at the community centre in Etobicoke. The only social event that was outside of the two locations was the Senior Excursion to Central Island. Dolma: I'm always comparing it to the community in England so I mean there is no comparison whatsoever! I'm a bit out of touch with the current situation in England but when I was there. You met a Tibetan there just by chance you had to go have a coffee. But here, you ignore it! (Laugh) unless it's your friend. I mean I love the community here you don't feel like you're missing out by not going to India. There's like 5 restaurants, and then if you want to catch up on news and chat you just step out your door

69 60 and meet people. The community center always has events (Recorded Interview, August 2016) Momo Crawl The summer of 2016 was the second year for the Momo Crawl and it was hosted by the SFT Toronto as a way to raise money. I bought my ticket online on tilt.com, one of the unique features of this site is the way it encourages members to invite their friends and families to whatever they are buying tickets for, and thus generates more revenue for the event organizers. The ticket cost $20 and would go toward funding SFT Canada and their related activities and campaigns. A Caucasian lady I met said the event was wonderful when she attended last year. This event not only raised funds for Students for Free Tibet organization, it connected non-tibetan Canadians to a temporary Tibetan space and encouraged them to learn more about Tibet in a benign and interactive way through food. SFT uses such events to nurture non-tibetan Canadians interest in Tibetan food and Tibetan culture, which would then garner more political support for Tibet. The event also proved to be a great source of promotion for all the Tibetan restaurants involved. Around nine Tibetan restaurants are on Queen Street West in Parkdale, a high number particularly for one area. Dolma told me that doing the Momo crawl is a good way to compare the different Tibetan restaurants, as the quality of the momo is significantly noticeable. Momo is a Tibetan dumpling dish, and it appears to be a favorite among many of the Tibetans in Toronto. Some Tibetans have also mentioned that momo is a very social food, family and friends would socialize as they make momos together and then the momos are shared in a communal setting. In order to participate in the Momo Crawl, one has to obtain a momo crawl passport from the SFT booth at the Tsampa café. The passport has a map of Parkdale, with the area around Jamieson street called little Tibet. It is fascinating how the Tibetan restaurants can represent important landmarks of place for the Tibetan diaspora. Little Tibet on the Momo crawl map was marked out thanks to the nine restaurants. Each restaurant was a star checkpoint. I purchased my passport at the SFT booth, as well as my first momo, every passport give the holder ten momos, as well as instructions for eating them:

70 61 Figure 3: 2016 Momo Crawl Passport. The political momo has a shell that s delicate yet firm enough to hold in the juices. One bite and the juice will squirt out if you re not careful. They are best eaten with your fingers. You take a small bite off one end, suck in the juice, spoon in some hot sauce and then pop the whole momo into your mouth. It will go down like butter. Every bite you take, is a helping hand for the cause of Tibetan freedom (2016 Momo Crawl passport, photo of the passport taken by myself). Every time we eat a momo at a restaurant, the holder must pass over their passport so that it can be checked and updated at the checkpoint restaurant. Even though the restaurants were all on the same street, it was still quite a trek! I managed to meet up with a few familiar faces about halfway through my checkpoints. I met the organizers for Tashi Norbu s art gallery. They recommended that I also attend his art workshops at the community centre that would be happening later in the month. As we continued on, we stopped at a craft store on Queen Street West. The store is owned by a Tibetan who sells quality merchandise from India and Nepal. I was surprised to learn that the lady store owner recognized me from the previous Gorshey night. It turned into a delightful and unexpected encounter. We spoke a while in Chinese before parting ways.

71 62 For Tibetans, the Momo Crawl was not only a way to engage non-tibetans to the Tibetan cause through food, but it was also a way to mark out the unofficial Little Tibet, Toronto as shown on the Momo Crawl passport participants receive. This year, the passport was red, and there were various jokes by organizers and participants throughout the day alluding to its similarity to a Chinese passport, but better! When I expressed my desire to see more of these restaurants or landmarks around Parkdale, Dolma laughed and exclaimed that is a lot of restaurants in one small area! Particularly when one considers the already small Tibetan population (around 4000) in Toronto Gorshey nights The Ontario Tibetan Women s Association organizes the weekly Wednesday Gorshey nights is a Lhakar celebration of the 14 th Dalai Lama s holy day, which is on Wednesday. Gorshey is a favorite among Tibetans, especially among elders (who always seem to be the ones starting it). The circle dance only has one requirement, to join in the circle (which can bloom to a huge size depending on participants) and dance, whether perfectly or imperfectly. It s wonderful, in that it s inviting and inclusive (Lokyitsang 2014). Many Tibetan youths, such as Lokyitsang who grew up in the west, struggle with preserving their Tibetan culture and Tibetan language. Growing up influenced by western culture, they are always concerned that they are somehow letting the older generations down by not being Tibetan enough. There are also some ongoing tensions between established Tibetans in the west and Tibetan newcomers from India regarding who is more authentically Tibetan (Hess 2009). The arguments over authenticity are contentious and complicated. They are often based on perceived knowledge and mastery of the Tibetan culture, history, spirituality, language and proximity to the Dalai Lama and the homeland. With no easy solutions, this will likely be a long-term issue for the Tibetan community in Toronto. The Gorshey circle offers a temporary respite as an encompassing space that manages to connect all Tibetans despite their many differences and generational gaps and have them dance together.

72 63 It is the one space where Tibetans did not judge my imperfect Tibetaness but accepted the imperfections, whether I danced it right or not didn t matter, and if I wanted to get the steps down the people closest would help explain how the steps worked. It was a space of enjoyment, along with dancing came laughter for dancers and watchers. For me, as a Tibetan American-teen back in the days, it was where I found common ground and laughter with the oldest in the community (Lokyitsang 2014). Tibetan youths must cope in a present reality in which they are being confronted with an overwhelming narrative of culture loss. Tibetan spaces such as the Gorshey nights represent a refuge, if only a temporary one, that does not judge them for their perceived lack of knowledge as Tibetans. In Bauman s words from his work on Community, it Gorshey is a place of community and belonging where no one will poke fun of us, no one will ridicule our clumsiness and rejoice in our misfortune Our duty, purely and simply, is to help each other, and so our right, purely and simply, is to expect that the help we need will be forthcoming (Bauman 2001: 2). The Facebook page states that Gorshey nights generally start around 6pm, and the events are held pretty much all year, taking a brief respite in the winter. The first time I went to a Wednesday Gorshey night, I got a bit lost while searching through Parkdale for the Parkdale Collegiate Institute, and by good chance, stumbled across Tashi, one of the organizers of Tashi Norbu s art gallery, taking a stroll with Tashi Norbu, the artist himself. I talked briefly with them, and they told me about the gallery opening tomorrow night and how they will both be in Toronto for the next three weeks to host an art workshop. They invited me to come by the gallery when I have some time. I bid them farewell a block later and continued on my way. By the time I arrived by the institute, I was famished. Nobden and Sue had both recommended that I try one of the Tibetan restaurants here, so I decided to go to the first one I spotted, Tashi Delek restaurant. I found out later the term Tashi Delek is an auspicious Tibetan greeting that translated to something similar to All the best! I ordered momos (Tibetan dumplings) and gyumo (blood sausage), they were delicious. It was 6pm when I arrived outside the high school. There were middle-aged Tibetan women standing in a row, their children playing and

73 64 running across the school ground. Not knowing anyone in the crowd, I was a bit of an odd thumb. Two Tibetan ladies thought I was lost and spoke to me in Chinese, trying to help me. I explained that I was also here for the Gorshey night and they looked surprised. I realized they do not speak much English. After a while they left me alone and went on chatting animatedly in Tibetan. Despite my initial discomfort at being in an unfamiliar place at dusk and not understanding what is really happening around me, Gorshey nights turned out to be the highlight of my fieldwork and a significant space of belonging for Tibetans. After minutes the SFT group came with equipment to play the outdoor movie that was supposed to take place after the Gorshey. I offered to watch their equipment. A bit later, Lhamo came by and introduced me to Sonam, the national director of SFT. While the Gorshey was happening, SFT had a table selling SFT t-shirts to raise money. Sonam introduced me to the director of the Tibetan Women Association (TWA). Within less than 30 minutes of attending my first Gorshey night, I had made contact with three major Tibetan organizations. It was a place where everyone seemed to know everyone and it became one of the gateways I used to get into the Tibetan community. The dancing was fun and exhausting. The steps were hard but I found that people were generally very welcoming and helpful. In fact, if I tried to sit down and take a break, someone would wave me back saying, Don t worry, the next song is easier. After the dancing, the majority of people left and went home. I stayed behind along with a number of Tibetan youths because SFT had organized an outdoor movie screening of the 1998 movie, The Cup., which is a film about young Tibetan monks in India who really wanted to see the finale of the 1998 world cup. The Cup was a light hearted comedy that spared no expense in humorously decrying the Chinese occupation and influences in Tibet with a number of memorable lines such as, The only thing they gave us is rotten rice/the United States is scared shitless of China/You don t need this [Chinese] hat anymore, now that you re free. After the movie, one commenter reemphasized the message of the movie to stop thinking with I and as such cease in seeing life as unsatisfactory. I helped the SFT volunteers move the screening equipment back to their office down the street and it was almost 11pm when I finally got home.

74 65 I arrived a bit late to my second Gorshey night and the music and dancing were well underway. Even though this was my second time, I still felt unprepared and intimidated. I felt a sense of relief whenever I saw someone familiar at the circle, as though that gave me an informal welcome into the circle. I sat down beside an acquaintance s mother and friends. Her mother immediately offered me Tibetan buttered chai and then went around and offered it to everyone. The sweet hot beverage was perfect for a cool summer night. As I sipped my hot chai, I glanced around. As usual, the school court was bustling with Tibetans, amalas (grandmothers), palas (grandfather), acha-las (aunties). People sat in a big half circle, around the inner circle of dancers. And did they dance! Around and around the stereo. The music moved from one region of Tibet to another. For famous traditional songs, everyone does the regular kick steps. The beat picks up and the steps become more complicated. That s when everyone starts watching the old men who dance confidently, though I heard that sometimes they just make it up as they go! The song finished and I decided to join in the dancing. Immediately a space opened up and the circle widened to allow me in. I tried to remember the steps but I fumbled. Like the first time I went to Gorshey night, a Tibetan man next to me quietly counted steps for me. The ladies from Tibetan women s association dressed in their beautiful green chupas (traditional Tibetan dresses) as usual, and they continued to pass around hot Tibetan buttered tea in the crowd. I spotted Lhamo and some girls from SFT on the other side of the dance circle. We danced and danced! It was so hot inside the circle. Some girls dressed full traditional chupas while other had on fancy western dresses. Most ladies had heels in order to stomp loudly. Every time a song finished, people busily began to fan themselves, soon I was doing the same. After a while, two little girls joined the circle next to me, and a space opened up for them. They struggled with the dance step and an older gentleman immediately took them by the hands and started mentoring them. All the while he showered them full of praises at their efforts. I liked that there were also people of all skill levels in the circle. For Tibetans, Gorshey night was a time for socialization. Kids ran amok, weaving in and out of the circle. The mothers use this time to relax and catch up with their friends. People sat scattered across the front yard at Parkdale Collegiate Institute, chewing on sun flower seeds and other snacks, drinking Tibetan buttered chai and gossiping animatedly in Tibetan. And when an unknown

75 66 Chinese girl joined, people noticed. At the Tibetan boutique store in Parkdale later, the lady owner remarked how she and the others were impressed by how well the Chinese girl danced! An old Tibetan man stopped me after one of the Gorsheys and told me that I must come back next Wednesday. You have improved, he remembered me and handed me a bottle of water. It seems that in this circle, anyone can join and have a good time. Even an unknown Chinese girl Tashi Norbu s Art Gallery Opening and Workshops If there is a space that was as memorable as the Gorshey nights, I would have to say it is Tashi Norbu s open art gallery night. It was the gateway space that led to my male participants. This space was a strange mix of non-tibetans and Tibetans who frequented the gallery and it quickly became obvious that the paintings held different symbolic meanings for non-tibetans and Tibetans. For example, I saw that many Tibetan viewers were often awestruck by the magnificence of one of the paintings called, The Void. It is a work that covered an entire wall section and represented the Halo or glow that is behind Buddha. Was it a reminder that everyone has Buddha dwelling inside of them? Having little to no prior knowledge of Tibetan Buddhism, I had difficulty understanding the symbolism behind the artwork. Tashi Norbu is a fusion artist that mixes traditional Tibetan Thangka art style with Western art techniques. Thangka is a traditional Tibetan art style that is deeply spiritual and Thangka artists generally only paint elaborately detailed paintings of Buddha and other deities for monasteries. A unique rule of Thangka paintings is that the artist never identifies himself. Perhaps one of the most distinct characteristic of Tashi Norbu s paintings that differentiates them from traditional Thangka artists is that he put his name on his art works.

76 67 Figure 4: Buddha painting. My Buddha Painting from Tashi Norbu s Art Workshop on August 1, 2016 at the Tibetan Cultural Centre (Photo taken by myself). A spiritual person, Tashi Norbu s works often incorporate Tibetan Buddhist elements as well as political themes and provoke viewers to think deeply. If one looks closely at his paintings, there are many western elements hidden in plain sight, such as a small sticker of Dora the explorer, as well as a picture of a school bus. After attending various Tibetan socials and events throughout my fieldwork research, I started to recognize people s faces who regularly attend community socials and events. I wondered how many Tibetan members I was unable to reach because they did not participate in these spaces. After all, many of these spaces require a significant amount of time and money in order to attend.

77 68 Figure 5: Tashi Norbu s Art Gallery at Gallery Tashi Norbu is a Tibetan artist from Amsterdam. His artwork was displayed at Gallery 1313 on Queen Street W. from July 21 August 7, 2016 (Photo taken by myself). 3.2 Stories of Migration through Food As Tibetans in the west attempt to preserve their Tibetan culture, Tibetan food is also not impervious to the influences of globalization and migration. This section will highlight several cases of localized Tibetan dishes adopting a fusion of South Asian cuisine, reception in the Tibetan community in Toronto and how the changes narrate a journey of migration through food. Friedman (2002), on localization and globalization, said: The different strategies of identity, which are always local, just like their subsumed forms of consumption and production, have emerged in interactions with one another in the global arena (2002:245). Most importantly, it reveals the adoption of sugar and spices into Tibetan cuisine, which quickly became a gateway to uncovering new Tibetan dishes. While some would point out that these localized Tibetan dishes and changes to Tibetan cuisine were caused by unwarranted, forced migration, I believe it is through food that one can truly tell whether any diaspora has managed to settle down in their new environment.